


Nightmares and Daydreams

by Birooksun



Series: Where do we go from here? [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Death Threats, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Original Chloe | RT600, Dreams and Nightmares, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Good Elijah Kamski, Gun Violence, Human Alice Williams (Detroit: Become Human), Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Kidnapping, Multi, Parent Elijah Kamski, Parent-Child Relationship, Post-Canon, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2019-12-25 11:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 37,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18260795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birooksun/pseuds/Birooksun
Summary: After the peaceful revolution, after so many androids were hunted down and killed. Elijah and the others find themselves picking up the pieces in a world that didn't want to change. His daughter Diana  had already stood on the front lines and been gunned down for it. Elijah wondered on what he could do to help her. He remembered growing up, so much of his age-range books were of teenagers fighting in revolutions, leading people into battle and being a hero before they even hit 18.Nothing ever stated how they picked up the pieces and moved on. They didn’t tell you how hard to was to watch someone be haunted by their memories, their mistakes and failures.Everyone tries to move on. To figure out where to go when the battle's won. Some of the humans though, they don't want the battle to be done with.





	1. Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to "You keep my head from going under". I'm like 90% sure this story will not make sense if you read it separately.

Diana stood with her back to Ralph, a knife in her shaking hands and pointed at the android in front of them. He towered over her, brown eyes too disarming in their warmth. He smiled and all traces of warmth vanished. “I seem to have found the deviants.” His words echoed around her and Ralph, she could feel his hands digging into her shoulders as she stood her ground.  _ He  _ wouldn’t take Ralph away from her, wouldn’t take her from him either.

“Ralph, you need to run. I’ll hold him off.” Something about her words felt familiar as she spoke, “We’ll be together forever, I promise but I have to save you.”

The RK800 in front of her only seemed to grin wider at her words. “How can you save him when he’s already dead?” He lifted up a pale hand and pointed it behind her. Her blood froze in her veins as she turned.  _ Ralph-  _ her Ralph was kneeling in snow and so much blue blood. She dropped the knife and ran towards him, feeling the cold bite at her skin as she grabbed him and knelt down. His hazel eyes were empty, lifeless as tears came to her own. Connor spoke again, “Pity his death won’t save you. My mission is to exterminate the deviants and I always accomplish my mission.” She turned towards him, the gun in his hands pointed at her head as she knelt before him and closed her eyes out of fear. It felt as if she had seen this before, someone kneeling before this killer as he pointed a gun at her. Unlike the memory she kept her eyes closed and the gun went off.

Diana screamed and shot out of bed, hissing in pain as the action pulled at her healing wounds. She looked around the empty room and sobbed, he was going to kill her- Ralph was-. The door opened and someone came into the room. She screamed again when a pair of hands grabbed her before realizing who was holding her, tears came to her eyes as she held a hand over her mouth and nose. “Ralph-”

“Shhh, Diana needs to rest. Ralph is here.” He sat down next to her, letting her throw herself against him and just cling to him as she cried. “Ralph is alive. Together forever, right?”

She nodded against his chest, her hands gripping the soft green long sleeved shirt he had taken to wearing as she tried to calm her tears long enough to speak. “He killed you, I tried to protect you and it wasn’t enough! It wasn’t enough, I wasn’t enough!” A touch of hysteria tinged her voice as she looked up at him, she could see the worried frown and his yellow LED. “He was going to shoot me-” Diana trailed off as her eyes unfocused before she pulled her hands against her head. “He should have shot me! Should have killed the worthless little bastard because I wasn’t able to save you!”

He frowned and pulled her tighter, his LED red for a moment before going back to the yellow it had been. “Diana is not worthless, she is priceless. Ralph is  _ alive _ . Diana and Ralph are  _ safe _ , Connor won’t hurt Ralph.” She just nodded, not trusting her own words as the two of them laid back down on her bed, clinging to each other as she fell back asleep. Ralph looked up at Chloe, still standing in the doorway, just watching them both with a worried expression. “Ralph will stay here, to keep Diana safe.”

She gave a twisted frown as she turned away, dark hair flowing behind her with the spinning motion. Chloe walked over to Elijah’s room, knocking softly before entering. The half-asleep man blinked several times to uselessly focus his eyes as he raised his head towards her. “I heard screaming, she had another nightmare?”

“About Connor again. Ralph is spending the night with her.” She quickly walked over, brushing some of Elijah’s long hair out of his eyes as he yawned.

“I think we might all sleep better if he just starts spending the night in her room.” He turned to see Chloe frowning at him, pink lips pointed in a pout. “I know she’s underage, but I doubt they’ll actually do anything.”

It amused him to see her bright blue eyes widen for a moment before she blushed, a soft sky blue tinting her cheeks. “I didn’t mean- that’s not-” She paused a moment, turning away from him to stare at the door. “I wish she would open up to more than just Ralph. It’s not healthy. I- I know it would be a bad idea, but I really think she should meet Connor again. She needs to realize he’s not the same person who hunted down deviants.”

“Or it could break her.” He reached for her hand and placed it against his bare chest. She sat down next to him on the bed, her hand still in place. “Humans are very fragile creatures Chloe. One false move and you could crush my heart.” He pressed her hand against his chest to prove his point. She could feel how quickly his heart beat, how steady his hands were as he held her hand to his heart. She looked up at his eyes, placing a hand on his cheek without a thought. “Right now, those nightmares are her brains way of working through the very real terror and trauma she faced.” He let go of her hand but she kept it against his heart as he placed his hands on the sides of her neck, thumbs lightly brushing against her jaw. “I think it would break her heart if we subjected her to seeing Connor again. I can fix any android my dear Chloe, but I do not for one moment think I could fix my daughter if she broke.” He pulled her close, pressing a kiss against her forehead before letting go and flopping gracelessly back down into his bed. “Now I’m going back to sleep, we can talk more in the morning.” 

Chloe gave a small shake of her head and smiled as she watched her best friend burrow back into his warm thick blankets. She got up off his bed and left the room, closing the door softly behind her. She walked around the house, occasionally looking out the large windows to see New Jericho. The house seemed almost small in comparison to the large towers, she felt small and alone looking out at it. Two of the Chloe’s had left, intent on discovering more about the world outside and meeting other androids. The original Chloe and her were all that were left. Her predecessor was currently in the pool, swimming in a white bathing suit. The brunette Chloe sat down at the edge of the pool, watching her swim. 

She looked out the window, watching the sun rise and walked back to the hallway. Chloe wanted to check in on Diana, but also didn’t want to startle the young woman. So she knocked lightly and Ralph opened the door, the sounds of the shower from the connecting bathroom coming out. “Diana couldn’t stay asleep. She kept jumping awake from nightmares. Ralph suggested a shower. Humans like water.” Chloe could only nod as Ralph stepped back and she entered the room. 

Chloe looked around the room, there were no windows since it was an interior room. She wondered how Diana felt about not having a quick escape from her room. It probably didn’t make much difference to the teen since they were far from the rest of the city. There was only one place she could go within walking distance and that was New Jericho, where some of the androids already knew her. She resumed her quick scan of the room, the closet was open, a long robe hanging from the corner of the door. Slightly blocked by the closet door was Diana’s computer desk with just a hair brush, the laptop, and a cellphone sitting on it. She looked over at the bed, Ralph sitting cross legged on it and watching her with a steady blue LED. “Chloe is  _ worried  _ about Diana?” 

Chloe sighed and nodded, stepping around the wheelchair that sat by the bedroom door and over to Ralph. “I wish she would open up more. I think it would really help her mental health to realize she has others that care about her.”

Ralph gave a small frown, “Diana’s uncle Gavin cares about her. He visits her now, Diana knows Uncle Gavin cares.”

She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and replying. “I meant others as in Elijah and I. We want to help Diana. Elijah may be alright with waiting for her to open up to him, but I’m not. I want to be there for her!” She stopped when she heard the sound of the water shutting off. The bathroom door opened slowly before closing again. Chloe turned to give Diana a smile, it quickly turned to a frown when she saw the teen frozen before her. The first thing Chloe noticed was the pink and puckered skin across the teens stomach. She then noticed the raised white lines on her hips. “Diana?” She didn’t say a word to Chloe, just walking past and entering the closet. The door didn’t shut because of the robe hanging on the edge but it was enough for the teen to get dressed. 

After a few minutes Diana appeared from the closet, black leggings and a long sleeve shirt covering her. She sat down at the computer chair, her legs shaking already from the shower and changing. “I assume you wanted to talk?” 

Chloe frowned at the teen’s refusal to look at her. “Could you tell me what your nightmare was about at least? I want to help.”

Ralph reached over and pulled Diana’s chair close to the bed, keeping her grounded and near him. Diana lifted her hazel eyes at him and gave a small smile before glancing at Chloe and sighing. “The Deviant Hunter.” She closed her mouth and didn’t say anymore.

Chloe felt like crying, “He’s good now, he’s a deviant now. He doesn’t have to hunt anyone.”

“Ralph almost died because of him!” Diana started to jump up, the chair wheeling back behind her as Ralph instead pulled her into sitting on his lap. Her weak legs let him easily pull her down. “He tried to hunt down Alice and Kara! The Traci’s! Hell he even tried to kill Markus!”

“He brought you to us.” Chloe couldn’t understand this human and her need to hold onto the past.

“In order to gain an advantage! I was nothing more than a pawn!” She tried to get up to yell at Chloe but Ralph kept a tight grip on her. “I can’t let go of what he’s done! I can’t just forgive and forget how he was going to kill us all Chloe. I just- I close my eyes and I can see him, holding a gun to the other Chloe’s head. I can see Ralph holding him off and screaming for Kara to run. I remember the soldier who shot me and Ralph and I see Connor’s face instead. I can’t just make this all better Chloe.”

“He didn’t shoot you though.”

“I know Chloe, I know he didn’t.” She leaned against Ralph, all former energy gone. “I know what he didn’t do, but I’m still haunted by what he could have done.” She turned away from Chloe, Ralph pulling her still wet hair out of her face. “He scares me.”

“Ralph hasn’t met the hunter since he deviated. Ralph doesn’t know if he should be scared as well. Little girl and mother are safe though!” He hugged Diana close to him and placed a quick kiss on her forehead. “Girl and mother have father too now! Ralph is happy to see they are safe.” 

Diana gave a small giggle at his words. “Yeah, that’s right. We do have that video call scheduled with them later today.” She sighed and tucked her head under his chin. “I don’t want to see him again, but if you want to meet the deviated version of him go ahead.” 

Chloe sighed at the two of them before turning towards the door. “Should I make you breakfast Diana? I recall you are still on a light diet.”

Diana just shook her head. “Not hungry.”

“Diana should eat. Come come, we will get food for Diana.” Ralph didn’t give her a chance before standing up and carrying her after Chloe. He gave a wide smile that Chloe found herself returning. He was just too upbeat for her to be frustrated at, and he cared too much about Diana as well. 

 


	2. Traumatized

Diana found herself pleased to learn Ralph was now moving into her room, part of her supposed her dad was deciding to prioritize her nightmares over any worries about them rooming together. After the video call with Kara, Alice, and Luthor she felt exhausted again. Diana skipped lunch and instead curled up in her bed. She wondered when her uncle Gavin would visit again, it was nice being with her dad but everything felt so stilted. He didn’t know how to treat a traumatized teen and she didn’t know how much to trust him. She gave a sigh as she closed her eyes, letting herself sink into much needed sleep.

She opened her eyes to see the rotting floorboards beneath her. She shook her head as she climbed up to her feet, a hell of a dream then. Diana walked out of the living room and into the kitchen to see Ralph carving in the walls again. He didn’t respond to her at all. Not until she placed a hand on his shoulder, then the knife turned and she felt the cool metal against her throat. “Ralph?”

“Humans hurt Ralph! Human wants to destroy Ralph!” She felt tears come to her eyes as he spoke, each word pressing the knife into her throat. It scared her, was this how she would die? At the hands of her best friend?

Diana jumped awake with a gasp. Her hands went to her throat and rubbed the smooth skin there. “Okay, you’re okay.” She laid back down and closed her eyes, trying to calm her breathing down and go back to her nap. She felt herself calming down and going back to sleep.

She couldn’t remember how she got there, but she was at the house with Ralph again. She clutched into the tarp, pleading with him, begging him to run away with her. Someone was pounding on the door, she raised herself on tiptoe and kissed Ralph, pouring all her desperation into the kiss as the door broke open. She felt hands roughly grab her and a gun went off. Ralph dropped to the floor as she struggled to get away from the hands holding her. He was just lying there, so still, too still as blue blood pooled around him. All she could see was the scarred side of his face and there was so much, so much blood around him. She heard a click and looked away to see the barrel of a gun.

“I must eliminate the deviant sympathizer.” The RK800 looked over her with cold brown eyes. Diana felt so scared as he pressed the cold barrel against her head. She looked up at him and saw her dad standing by his side, a hand on the hunter's shoulder while speaking against its ear. 

“Pull the trigger. Shoot and I’ll tell you all you need to know.” Diana closed her eyes and heard a gun go off.

She jumped up, deciding to forgo her attempted nap as she tried to calm her racing heart. Diana looked around the empty room, Ralph hadn’t joined her for the nap. She wondered what he did when seperated from her before shaking the thought out of her head. She pulled her hair slightly before walking over to the bathroom. She pulled up her sleeves with shaky hands and stared at the crisscrossing scars. Taking a deep breath she started looking around the drawers before cursing and pacing again. “Fucking hell! Fuck fuck fuck.” She sat back down on the bed, both hands tangled in her hair as she fought to stop wheezing. “Fucking breathe Diana!” She pulled her hands out of her hair and snagged her pillow, shoving her face into it and smothering herself for a moment. 

Keeping a slow five count she calmed herself down. “You’re alive, Ralph is alive, no one’s trying to kill you.” She pulled her sleeves back down, covering the scars, trying to remind herself it was the past and she needed to live in the future before she stood up on shaky legs and left her room. Diana tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear as she looked around the hallway. She still didn’t know what to make of the house, most of the time it felt too stale, to lifeless and more like a showpiece than a place of living. 

She found herself standing in front of her previous room, the personal hospital room. Ralph’s shattered heart still sat on the side table, there were still no curtains blocking the view of New Jericho and the river. It was as if she were still there, broken and not wanting to heal. She stepped in the room, glancing over the couch and looking at the hospital bed. She wondered how Chloe and Elijah felt when she was released into their care, wondered who was the first to see the scars on her arms. To see the cuts that were at the time barely scabbed over in her inner arms. Neither of them had said anything to her, but this was something she knew they wouldn’t be able to keep hidden. She wondered if either of them asked Ralph or Uncle Gavin about her compulsions. She wasn’t sure if Uncle Gavin knew, but Ralph had watched her before. 

He never questioned it, he carved in the walls and floor so what difference was it for the human to slice up herself? Diana looked out the window to New Jericho, she wondered how the newly freed androids were handling their new lives. Were some of them traumatized as well? How many found themselves jumping awake from a nightmare of being hunted down? How many kept looking over their shoulder, waiting for death to jump on them? She shuddered as she remembered the expression on Ralph’s face. Did he have nightmares of being pushed out the window? Nightmares where they were on the run? Where she was lying dead in the snow because he failed to save her? A broken sob left her and she wrapped her arms around herself. She didn’t know what to do, this wasn’t sane, it wasn’t normal. Diana knew she should talk to someone, but how do you open up to others when you never learned how? All she had was Ralph and Uncle Gavin before the revolution, now she had two Chloes and her dad as well. North and Simon showed up once in a while to tell her what was going on, Diana realized in that moment that she couldn’t remember how long it had been since their last visit. The nightmares and naps had blended her days together. Ralph had no idea of the passage of time, probably caused by the college kids who had hurt him. 

Diana jumped when someone hugged her from behind. A quick glance over her shoulder let her know it was Ralph. She smiled through the tears. “Diana had a nightmare again?” She nodded and turned to wrap her arms around his neck and return the hug. “Can Ralph help? Ralph wants to help his friend.”

She looked up at him, if she looked carefully she could  _ barely _ make out where his face was repaired, the left eye seemed a slightly different shade even though she knew it was the correct one for his model. She lifted a hand and brushed her thumb over his cheek. “How will I know this isn’t a dream? That this isn’t a nightmare?” Her voice cracked as she cried, one arm clutching onto his shirt as the other cupped his face. “I close my eyes and I see you dead. I open my eyes and I’m in a new world. Ralph. Oh Ralph-” 

He placed a kiss on her forehead, wiping away her tears before kissing her cheeks. “Diana is alive, Ralph is alive. Ralph wishes he knew how to help his human.”

“Kiss me?” She whispered before he softly placed his lips on hers. She pushed against him, drinking the moment in. He had never been the one to kiss her on the lips before. He had always kissed her forehead, but then again they had only kissed a few times. They pulled apart and looked at each other, neither sure how to react. “I’m scared, I’m scared I’m going to wake up and be in that bed again. That I’m going to wake up and you’ll be dead still.” He only pulled her closer to him in response, the two of them standing there, clinging to each other and lost in this new world. “I love you Ralph. I can’t bear the thought of living without you again.”

“Ralph is here Diana. We’re safe. Ralph is safe, Diana is safe and we can live.” They stayed there for another moment, Diana tucked away against Ralph’s chest and him looking out to New Jericho. “We’re free.”

She nodded and guided him out of the room, closing the door behind her without looking back. She didn’t want to look back, still scared of seeing herself back in that bed. Ralph wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they walked together in silence. Diana hadn’t even noticed where they were going until they entered the kitchen. She smiled and sprinted as best she could to where Gavin was sitting.  “Uncle Gavin!” She threw her arm around him, almost knocking him off the barstool in her hug. He gave a short laugh as he returned her hug.

“Sit down kid. Eat up, Chloe 1.0 made some fucking amazing lo mein.” He motioned to his bowl, she could see chopsticks sticking out of the bowl. “I don’t want to hear you’re not hungry. I bet you don’t even weigh a buck five, so you’re going to eat.” She sat down on a stool next to her uncle and took the bowl the blonde Chloe slid over to her. The dark haired Chloe was sharing a seat with Nines, he was in the armchair and she perched on the arm and chatted with him. Elijah was sitting on another barstool, on the other side of Gavin and already halfway through his bowl. 

Diana gave a small smile to her dad before looking down at the noodles and bean sprouts. Chloe handed her a pair of chopsticks and she thanked the android before poking at the food. It looked and smelled amazing but she couldn’t eat. She looked up at Chloe, the woman watching her with a serene expression. Suddenly all she could think of was another Chloe kneeling before Connor with a gun in her face. That same calm expression looking up at him. Someone touched her shoulder and she jumped up, a hand reaching over to slap away whoever touched her. Only Chloe’s reflexes saved the food. Gavin frowned and pulled back his hand, his grey eyes searching over her face for any sign of what was wrong.  

“Diana, you were spacing out for a moment.” She felt like she wanted to run, like she needed to escape. She closed her eyes for a moment, both fists rising to rest on her temples. “Diana, open your eyes.” She didn’t want to, she was too scared she would see Connor holding a gun again. Her chest felt too tight and her throat felt like someone was squeezing it shut. A pair of hands closed around her wrists and brought them down to her sides. She opened her eyes and screamed before throwing herself back. She was surprised Connor let her go so easily but she kept screaming. It wasn’t until she hit the ground she realized her mistake, it wasn’t Connor in front of her. Nines stood in front of her, he looked confused and hurt as he kept his hands up and open to show he meant no harm. She wanted to kick herself, they had very similar faces, but Nines was not Connor. 

Gavin sighed and turned to his half brother, “Scale of 1 to 10?”

Elijah finished chewing his food before looking over at his too pale daughter. “She hovers between an 8 and a 9. It’s bad but-” He paused as he watched Ralph kneel down next to the teen, whispering into her ear as he pulled her close to him. “He grounds her in reality. I think she has flashbacks mixed in with nightmares.” Both brothers watched the two of them whisper to each other for a moment before Ralph helped Diana back up to the barstool.

She placed her shaking hands on the countertop and looked at the bowl of food for a moment before turning to Nines. “Sorry, I just- you look so much like him I-”

Nines just held up a hand, “It’s understandable. I share many features with Connor. He hunted down deviants and caused trauma for many. I just wish I could help you.” She just nodded before turning away from him. Gavin noticed how she hadn’t stopped shaking yet. He reached over and placed a hand on the back of her neck.

“Hey, how bad is it all? Is it just the nightmares or something more?” He let go of her briefly, sliding his stool closer to her and throwing an arm over her shoulders. He watched Nines speak with Ralph, both of them interfacing. Androids were probably discussing her silently. He glanced to see the LED of the blonde Chloe flickering yellow as she looked over at the dark haired one. Yeah they were probably talking about Diana. She only shook her head and reached for her bowl and chopsticks again.

Elijah watched the two of them as he ate. He didn’t feel comfortable enough with her to be as comforting as Gavin obviously was. He wondered if he should try to get his brother to visit more than just weekends. He watched as Gavin whispered to Diana and she replied just as quietly before he lifted up his head and turned towards the two Chloe’s. “2.0, you’re the one who was with Diana, right?”

Diana lifted her head up and just raised an eyebrow at her uncle. He gave her the same look before she sighed. “Why are you calling Chloe 1.0 and 2.0?”

“I’m not going to call them both Chloe. That’s fucking weird.” He shoveled some more lo mein into his mouth before finishing up his bowl. “I want that bowl of yours at least half way finished before you leave this kitchen young lady. I don’t know what diet everyone on here has you on, but you’re skin and bones. You were already a stick before you got shot.” She gave a shrug and poked at her noodles before pulling out just one and slowly eating that. Gavin waved over to the brown haired Chloe. “2.0, follow me. We need to talk.” He gave a nod to his brother before the two of them stepped out of the kitchen. 

They kept walking until Gavin stopped, right in front of Diana’s room. “Asking you now, scale of 1 to 10?”

She fidgeted slightly before speaking. “A 9.5. I think she needs to confront Connor. Maybe that would help with her nightmares-” She paused when Gavin lifted a hand.

“Not gonna happen. You saw the same fucking thing I did back there didn’t you?” He opened the door and looked around the room before going to the desk and pulling drawers out and looking through them. 

Chloe watched him for a moment, seeing he didn’t find what he was looking for in the first two and searching through the third. “Well yes, she did had an adverse reaction to Nines. I still think it would help her to confront Connor and realize he’s not out to hurt us anymore.” She watched him close the third drawer and give a quick swipe of the long drawer under the laptop. He turned away from the desk and walked into the bathroom, looking through the drawers in there. She was reminded of when she had done the same and found the broken razors. “What are you looking for? Perhaps I can help you find it?”

He paused and looked her over, she knew he didn’t have a scanner or a heart rate monitor but in that moment it felt like he was looking at her component by component. “I’m looking for the absence of something. When she first moved in here I packed up all her shit from her mothers. I found razor blades.” He kept his eyes on her face the whole time he spoke. “You don’t seem surprised. Guess you snooped too. I’m looking to make sure she’s not cutting anymore.” 

Chloe wrung her hands and knew her LED would be yellow or red if she still had it in. “Should I scan for them? I didn’t see any new cuts on her today, not that I meant to spy on her but she walked out without a towel and I saw some of the scars but she ran off before I could assess for any new wounds-” 

Gavin reached over and gently grasped one of her hands. “It’s okay. We’re all looking out for her. I’m looking here, you check the closet and keep an ear out for her coming back. Okay? I want to be able to come up with a reasonable excuse if we get caught.” 

She nodded, turning to go into Diana’s closet. It was reasonably organized, she did have a drawer just for leggings and socks that was a complete mess though. Chloe fought the urge to organize them, or at least fold them. She scanned for any metal and then ran her hand under the mess of socks. She didn’t find anything and opened the second drawer, folded shirts and a pile of sports bras, same procedure, nothing. The third drawer was full of Diana’s pajamas, nothing else in there either. Chloe pulled out the last drawer and sighed. No clothes, no razors. Instead there were little awards, ribbons, pictures, and notebooks. A cluttered mess of hidden memories. She wondered if Diana dumped everything in here because she didn’t want to see them or because she was so used to hiding them. 

Chloe picked up a picture that sat on the top, a digital picture of Gavin and Diana standing together, one arm slung over her shoulders and the other outstretched to the edge of the frame. In the picture, Diana’s nose was completely straight and she didn’t have the scar on her cheek. It pulled at Chloe’s heart to see how hopeful and happy Diana looked in the photo. She put it back down, resolving to have a copy made for Elijah. She turned her attention to the shelves, seeing a few stacks of folded jeans. Chloe frowned and decided she really should size and order more for Diana, there were very few without any rips or heavy stains that refused to come out. 

That probably explained why Diana had only worn leggings since she arrived. Still Chloe checked the pockets of each one. She found change, loose bills, and in a pair that she wanted to throw out then and there- if only for the memories, a worn and folded flyer for the WR600 model androids. She unfolded the pair of pants, holding them up and frowning as she stared at the heavy stains in them, the bottom half of the jeans were so  _ soaked _ in thirium that it was unable to wash out to the light blue of the jeans, the top half had a heavy dark stain on the front. Chloe remembered them slowly soaking with blood as she rushed over to Diana and slapped the pressure bandage on her. She folded the pants up and ran her hands over her shirt to erase the memory of the warm, sticky blood on her hands.

She then started going through the few jackets and found more knicknacks in the pockets. There was a Swiss Army knife in one of the pockets, but a quick scanned revealed no signs blood. In almost every jacket though she had at least one pocket filed with different health bars. One jacket in particular had $200 in an inside pocket that must have been sewn in by Diana herself. Most likely for an emergency. There were two articles of clothing that were of much higher quality than the rest of her clothes. One very pretty dress that at a glance Chloe could tell would not look very nice on Diana at all. The other was a three-piece charcoal gray suit. 

She spotted a backpack hidden in the closet and knelt down to open it, there was a plastic bag with two full sets of clothes tightly rolled up inside of it. Another plastic bag, this one with an assortment of pads and tampons in it. She found various bags of food, along with a small can opener and a spoon. Chloe wondered why Diana would still have things packed up, why she would be steadily replacing and using the food in the backpack. She wondered if it was a habit that Diana couldn’t get rid of, the need to have an escape. She just sighed and put everything back as it was before opening and looking through the smaller pockets in the backpack. She frowned at seeing the switchblade in one of the small pockets, there were traces of blood on it but they were old, from long before Diana had even met her.

Chloe didn’t find anything that had been used to self harm in the closet and left it, making sure the door was in the exact position it had been when she entered. She went over to the bathroom and saw Gavin on his hands and knees looking through the cabinet under the sink. “Her closets clear. I couldn’t find any implements for self harm, but the condition of her clothes were worrisome.” She kept to herself the bag, the sewn in money, the old knife turned rusty from blood. There was nothing new stating Diana currently harmed herself, so they were her own secrets to keep.

Gavin huffed and shook his head, “She spent half her time squatting in a shithole of a house, of course her clothes are crap. I couldn’t find anything either, so she’s still clean. Let’s head back.” She nodded and they both left Diana’s room, heading down the hallway and back to the kitchen. “I know you have the naive idea she should meet Connor, but do you think she’s well enough for other visitors?”

Chloe tilted her head slightly and turned to Gavin, “She’s had a few visitors, Simon and North have come over several times. Though North has gotten more of a response from Diana. She tends to just stare at Simon instead of speaking with him.”

“Huh, probably thinking of the day she got shot.” He shrugged and looked over at Chloe, “You know he’s the one she dove in front of right? She got shot and Ralph shielded her with his own body after that.” He placed his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. “I mean, so much of this is because she watched Ralph get shot. Probably wonders once in a while if his life is worth so much.” 

Chloe felt surprised, she had forgotten why Ralph defended Diana during that battle. Simon was going to die, Diana threw herself in front of Simon and got shot, then Ralph took a bullet that should have killed Diana and died in her arms. They entered the kitchen and Chloe could see Diana sitting in the same spot, with Ralph on one side and Elijah on the other. Nines and the other Chloe were in a rather matched chess match. Gavin clapped her on the shoulder and walked over to the barstools, sitting down by his brother. He tapped Elijah on the shoulder and whispered, “She’s clean. Probably wouldn’t help to have an intervention.” 

Elijah gave a small nod, piercing blue eyes darting from the dark haired Chloe to Gavin. He could tell Chloe had found something, but not anything that would harm Diana. Something Diana had tried to keep secret perhaps? He looked down at his daughter, Gavin was right, she was wasting away to skin and bones. Elijah just placed a hand on her shoulder, she flinched a little before turning to look at him. Her hazel eyes guarded and wondering why he bothered, he knew that expression. Gavin had worn it for the first few weeks when he started living with Elijah’s family. He just gave a half-smile before patting her shoulder. 

Gavin’s energy then had been directed at having someone to protect, Diana had already done her protecting. She had already stood on the front lines and been gunned down for it. Elijah wondered on what he could do to help his daughter. He remembered growing up so much of his age-range books were of teenagers fighting in revolutions, leading people into battle and being a hero before they even hit 18. Nothing ever stated how they picked up the pieces and moved on. They didn’t tell you how hard to was to watch someone be haunted by their memories, their mistakes and failures. He was learning the hard way how there  _ was  _ no better- he couldn’t tell which was worse. To hear his daughter scream as the nightmares he left her to haunted her each night and day, or see her sink further and further into depression as he struggled to save her friend’s life. 

Elijah had hoped everything would be alright once Ralph was repaired and operational again. He hadn’t expected that her climb out of that pit only to be so fraught with nightmares. He looked Diana over as she picked at her food, still eating one bit at a time, and frowned as he looked at the sunken cheeks, the heavy rings around her eyes, the slight tremor that still ran through her hands. She looked tired, she leaned heavily against Ralph. He wondered if she tired easily because she was still healing or because she was depressed. Diana pushed away the bowl. Half of it eaten. Elijah turned to look at the Chloe’s, he would be asking them to start making some nutritional shakes for Diana. She needed to regain her weight and her energy. 

He looked over at Ralph, holding Diana against him with a yellow LED blinking, before he spoke. “I think we should visit New Jericho tomorrow. Markus has been wanting you to visit again sometime Diana and I think it would be a good opportunity to see just what they need, and what we can help with.” Ralph and Diana both looked up at him before looking at each other, they really were close in how they communicated without words. Diana gave a nod to Elijah and Ralph hugged her closer. “Of course there always seems to be news crews around there. I expect they would try to interview you.” He watched her for a moment before speaking again. “Since I don’t know how long it will take, I want you to use the wheelchair tomorrow.” 

She sat up and was ready to protest, stopping at Elijah raising a hand up. “There’s several reasons, you still tire too easily and I doubt you want one of us to be carrying you around. Another is image. You were shot down by  _ our  _ military. A human being who bled out among androids, who owes her life to androids. It would serve as a reminder that their issues are ours as well.”

“I hadn’t even thought to check how things were going.” Diana replied, moreso to herself. She turned and looked in the direction of New Jericho, shaking hands moving to grasp Ralphs own. 

A few hours later Diana gave into the ever present wearniness and climbed back into her bed, Ralph sitting next to her. She placed on hand on his own, fingers running over the scarring on his hands, where synthetic skin was too damaged to cover up the scrapped plastics underneath. Ralph watched as she slowly eased into her sleep, clutching his hand like her life depended on it. She started to twitch in her sleep, legs curling up slightly and face furrowing into a frown. Ralph ran a hand through her hair as she whimpered and clutched his hand even tighter, wrapping her arms around his own. 

She opened her eyes and jumped up in her bed, arms still wrapped around Ralphs. He let her pull him slightly and watched, his side and head occasionally twitching still as she took deep breaths of air and turned to see him still sitting next to him. “We’re alive, right? We’ll live through this?”

He nodded and pulled the smaller teen against him, running his hand through her hair as she traced the scars on his hands and slowly traced where his face had previously been damaged. She gave some sniffles as she traced lines only she could see in his face. “It still confuses me, to see you without all the damage you’ve had inflicted on you.” She dropped her hand to her lap and looked up at him, “I suppose it’s much better for you now that you don’t have any wiring exposed anymore.” Ralph gave a small smile and pulled Diana back down to the bed. 

“It is good that Ralph doesn’t have to feel pain from anything touching his face.” He climbed under the sheets with her, pulling her so she mostly laid on him, her arms wrapped around his frame. “Now though, Diana should rest. Humans need to sleep and Diana is still healing.” 


	3. A meeting in New Jericho

Diana held onto the arms of her wheelchair, looking back at the brown haired Chloe holding the handles before turning to see Ralph standing by her side. They were traveling behind the original Chloe and her dad as they walked into the entrance of New Jericho. Diana looked around in surprise, it was beautiful with the high ceilings, but too much white everywhere. A few androids sat around in small circles, talking with each other softly. Diana’s head whipped to the side when she heard her name called. 

She grinned when she saw the two Traci’s jog up to her, the brown haired one let go of the blue haired one’s hand and knelt down to hug Diana. “You made it out alive. We were scared after seeing you get shot like that.” She looked up at Ralph, he was watching her with a small frown and stepped back in surprise when she hugged him as well. “You’re alive? But a shot like that, you were dead!” 

Elijah took that moment to step in, Ralph looking at him in panic with a red LED. “He was repaired, as I’m sure you can see.” She nodded and stepped away, Ralph stepping closer to Diana and placing a hand on her shoulder. He relaxed slightly when she held his hand and looked up at him. “I’m sorry to interrupt this reunion, but we really must see Markus.” They entered the elevator after a moment and quietly stood together as the five of them waited for it to get to the correct floor. 

The doors opened and Chloe wheeled Diana out first before everyone else followed. The teen flinched a little at the flashing lights of photographers. She felt Ralph reaching for her hand and grasped onto his as they stopped, seeing Markus, Noth, Josh, and Simon. She gave a weak smile to Simon as he waved a hand at her, Markus and North already starting to speak with Chloe and Kamski. The dark haired Chloe kept her tight grip on the wheelchair handles, looking around at all the people around them. She smiled at Simon when he decided to just sit on the floor next to Diana’s chair and right at Ralph’s feet. 

“You’re out of the hospital bed, so that’s an improvement.” She shrugged a little and looked around at the reporters, most had converged on the four speaking together, but a few were still taking pictures of the other five. Diana wondered if they had been told not to harass her. A hand gently grasped the one not holding onto Ralph’s and she lifted her head up to see Simon kneeling in front of her and looking up to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry but I have to ask- why? Why did you almost get yourself killed to save me?”

She gave a sad smile and turned her hand slightly in his, running her thumb over his knuckles. “Why wouldn’t I try to save the one who let a human and their friend into Jericho? You let us have a chance Simon. You were worth it. I’m just- I’m just a human.” Ralph sighed and rubbed her shoulder slightly as Josh kept speaking with him. She looked up at him, the two androids speaking low enough she couldn’t hear them. 

Simon nodded slightly and patted her knee before speaking again. “It wasn’t just me, Markus-”

“Probably wouldn’t have without you. You made sure people wouldn’t realize there was a human in Jericho. You put yourself at risk for Ralph and I.” She twitched slightly as he hugged her, the cameras going off again as she slowly let go of Ralph’s hand and hugged him back. 

Simon stood up, placing a hand on her head before turning to Chloe, Ralph, and Josh. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped when the elevator doors opened again. Connor and Hank came out, followed by Gavin and Nines. The latter two darted to the other group, Gavin quickly checking on a pale Diana who kept staring at Connor. 

“Hey kid, you gotta breathe, okay? Look away from him and look at me. Breathe?” He gripped her shoulders before physically turning her face away.

She turned around to Ralph and looked at his with fear-filled hazel eyes. “We need to leave before he sees us Ralph.” He nodded and took the wheelchair from Chloe. Gavin stopped them both from leaving, hands on either side of the chair.

“Look, it’s a bad situation right now, I know. Thing is though, it’s gonna look bad for us all if you try to dip out early. If he tries anything- I’ll shoot him. Would that make you feel better?” He grinned at the quick nod Diana gave him, her eyes locked on Connor again. She was too focused on Connor to notice the reporters starting to shift from her father and Markus to the larger group to the side. 

“Miss Winters, if there a reason you’ve arrived with Mr. Kamski? You’re a runaway aren’t you? Would you care to say anything of the rumors that before the demonstrations you were living on the streets?” A mic was shoved in her face as Gavin growled and pushed the mic away from her. 

Diana blinked slowly and looked up at the man holding the mic. “Mr. Douglas, I haven’t see you in a while.”Gavin stopped trying to block the reporter when she gave a small smile to the older man. “I supposed if you want to know why I’m living with Mr. Kamski, that is his choice to tell you. As for the reports of being a runaway and living on the streets. It was only part time, squatting in a rundown house was much better than locking myself in my room and wondering what else could happen to me.”

The man’s smile faded as she spoke. “Diana? I know Shirley had a temper when things didn’t go her way, but are you saying?”

She lifted her chin and looked right at him and the camera behind him, “Exactly, She’s broken my nose before. She used to burn me, and she’s scarred me.” Diana gave a shrug and looked over at Ralph, “But as long as I never have to go back to her, I can put it behind me. Right now there’s bigger things going on than one abused child.” 

Ralph gave her shoulder a squeeze, “Humans hurt Diana, but Diana only wanted to help us. Diana doesn’t deserve to be hurt. No, Ralph won’t let it happen.” 

The rest of the meeting seemed to go pretty well, Gavin and Ralph keeping her attention away from Connor as he and Nines kept an eye out with all the reporters. Diana felt she should have known things were going to well to be true, even with the surprise of Connor being there. The doors slid open again, everyone seeming to turn in surprise to see who the latecomer was. Connor quickly stepped in front of Markus and raised his gun, pointing it at the man who walked in. Nines copied him and blocked Elijah with his body, both firing and hitting the man when he raised his gun. 

The woman who had been standing behind him slipped out to the side, not seeming to react to her partner being shot and killed. Connor quickly turned to fire at the second person but stopped when he heard Diana speak. “Mom?” He froze and regretted it when she raised her own gun and caught the reporter Joss Douglas in the arm before grabbing Diana by the arm and pulling the teen up to her feet and placing a gun under her jaw. Ralph stood his ground, blocking the others and watching Diana with fearful eyes. Connor wondered why Ralph was preventing the others from helping Diana, but assumed he knew the woman better than he did.

“Move and I’ll shoot her!” Connor glanced over at the group Diana had been standing with, Detective Reed was checking on the reporter and aiming his gun at the woman, he couldn’t take the shot without risking Diana though. Not with a gun under her chin. He took a moment to scan her identity. S _ heryl Winters, born 1998, reporter for Channel 16 news, one arrest on record. _ Diana looked scared but kept looking past him to see her dad’s reaction. Connor glanced back at Kamski, the man looking pale and frightened behind Nines, in that moment he seemed a shadow of his usual self. 

Sheryl took the moment to run out of the room, dragging her taller daughter behind her. Connor noticed the teen stumbling and being dragged as she held onto her stomach. He quickly ran after the two of them. Sheryl yelled at her daughter to stop struggling before dropping her wrist and slapping the teen across the face with the gun. 

“When your mother gives you an order, you obey.” Diana hit the ground with the strike and heard two shots go off before she saw her mother hit the ground. She stared at the lifeless eyes before slowly turning around and screaming. She found herself staring up at Connor, a gun in his hands and his eyes looking past her to her mother. She dimly noticed someone running down the hallway towards the two of them. She didn’t even notice Connor put away the gun and look down at her in surprise. She just kept screaming until someone put their arms around her.

Elijah felt terrified, Diana had almost been kidnapped by her mother after someone tried to shoot either himself or Markus and now she was in his arms and in shock. He slowly lifted up his daughter, feeling her arms tighten around his neck as he realized again that she was just too light. He looked over at Connor, the RK800 looking concerned, before he walked back down the hallway with Diana in his arms. Elijah walked back into the room to see how chaotic it had gotten in the space of a few minutes. He was aware of several photographers getting pictures of himself carrying his daughter with Connor trailing behind them.

He found himself surprised when Gavin pulled Connor in for a quick, more of a chest bump with a pat on the back, hug before whispering, “Thank you.”Elijah cleared his throat and walked back to Markus, aware of how tightly Diana was clinging to him as he sat down. 

“It seems things have gotten a little more exciting than we expected.” He turned over to the reporter who had gotten shot, Simon and Josh were talking with him quietly as Chloe put pressure on the wound. He frowned and looked around, wondering where Ralph had gone. A glance to the side by Markus prompted him to turn and see Ralph right behind his shoulder. “I believe Diana would feel more comfortable with you holding her Ralph.” He let it go unsaid that he needed to get the clinging teen off his neck and chest before he bruised from her fingers digging in. 

“Ralph will keep Diana safe.” Elijah nodded and Ralph scooped his arms under her, gently pulling her off and whispering the whole time. “Ralph is safe, Diana is safe. Scary Connor kept Diana safe.” With her now curled up in Ralph’s arms Elijah was able to get a better look at her face.

She was bleeding. “Connor.” It came out as barely a whisper but the android heard him, calmly strolling over to Elijah as Diana closed her eyes and tucked her face into Ralph’s neck, avoiding looking at the android that saved her. “Why is my daughter injured? What happened before you shot that woman?” He spoke calmly, but leveled a glare at the android. They all ignored the flashing bulbs and few shouted questions.

Connor looked at Diana for half a second before turning back to Elijah. “Ms Winters tried to order your daughter to stop struggling and accompany her. Your daughter refused and was struck across the face with Ms Winters gun. It dropped her to the ground and allowed me to shoot Ms Winters without any worry of hitting your daughter as well.” He paused and gave a frown before continuing. “I will admit, I did not expect your daughters reaction when she turned and saw me. It was,  _ shocking  _ to say the least.” 

Ralph spoke before Elijah could, “Nightmares. Diana sees a gun and your face, humans hurt her but the hunter scares her.” Elijah withheld a wince, seeing the hurt expression on Connors face at realizing he was her nightmare. “Diana wakes up screaming, has to check that Ralph is safe. Ralph knows Ralph is safe, Diana should too. Ralph and Diana are no longer hunted, why should we fear the hunter?” 

Connor nodded mournfully before turning away from the family. “In that case, I will resume my position by the door. Nines can stay nearby if needed.” He furrowed his brow before reaching out to Diana, stopping just before touching her. “Miss Winters, I mean, Diana? If it helps at all, I am truly sorry for my actions before. I was just a machine, I only followed the orders given to me and I didn’t know- I didn’t know I could make a choice.” 

She curled tighter against Ralph, eyes screwed shut and mumbling. Connor seemed to be able to understand her though. He nodded and walked back to the elevator doors, barely sparing a glance at the dead man lying just outside the doors. 

Elijah turned away from it all and back to Markus, he could see the leader wanted to say something. Mismatched eyes turned away from Diana and Ralph and back to Elijah. “I had forgotten, in the past month.” He didn’t respond, just tilting his head towards the android to show he was listening. “She’s just a child. A child who stood by us and almost died for our cause.”

“Jamille was a child too.” Diana turned her head towards Markus, she hadn’t relinquished her deathgrip on Ralph but speaking was a step forward. “Almost everyone who joined you could be counted as a child. I’m not even sure any of us were allowed to drink.” She played gently with Ralph’s fingers, staring at the scarred plastic still showing instead of looking at the two men next to her. “We suffered and died for the sins of our fathers, shed blood of both red and blue in hopes of freedom. Now they try to kill you with death by a thousand cuts.”

Markus gave a half smile, “That sounds like a rather boring death compared to before. Would it be a small price to pay for freedom?”

She still didn’t look at them, but her grip on Ralph was loose as she leaned heavily against him, Elijah could see how tired she was. She looked ready to pass out. He wondered if it was from the emotional shock of today or if she was still just weak. “Death by a thousand cuts may be boring, but it’s still death. They still might win in the end. We-” She cut herself off with a yawn before continuing, “we need to stand together even still. They’ll try to push you back with every step forward. A pacifist can’t spill blood without smearing it over their name. Use us as weapons, point out where to strike and your hands will-” another yawn, hazel eyes glazed over finally looked up at them, “be free from blood.” 

Markus gave a small smile at Diana before turning back to Elijah. “She is right in the fact that I have to appear above such acts of violence.”

“Do you feel violence is still needed?” Elijah knew the answer to his own question, he just wanted to know how Markus truly felt though.

He glanced over to Diana, a slight frown twisting his lips as his eyes landed on her bloodstained cheek. “Somedays I feel violence is the only language you humans understand. Even now there are still protests, still blood being shed over our freedom.”

Elijah nodded, turning slightly to see the paramedics check the reporter and another scurry over to their side to check on Diana. “We’ll speak more on this later of course.”

Markus gave a smile before standing and shaking Elijah’s hand. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” He placed a hand on Elijah’s shoulder, stopping him from walking away with the rest. “I do thank you for your efforts in helping us. You could have easily chosen to find a way to force us back into slavery. You could have easily become bitter over your daughter almost losing her life during the demonstration, but you haven’t. You’re a good man Elijah.”

He shook his head, turning to see North speaking with the brown haired Chloe before he turned back to Markus. “I’m not a good man, I’m just a man. What happened to Diana, that day- it wasn’t your fault. Diana was right in one thing, it was a massacre and your people are not to blame. The army, our president, everyone who saw there were humans mixed in, everyone who saw all the signs that you are alive and still chose to gun you down. Those are who I blame. Not you Markus. I could never blame you.” He turned and walked away.

North walked up to Markus. “I’m worried that they were able to get in Markus.” She leaned against him and they both looked out the window. “We really need to find a way to increase our security and keep our people safe.”

“I know. This fight still isn’t over.”

She looked up at him before turning her gaze down to the dots that were others below them. “The next time they could be after you. I hate to say it, but we were lucky it was only two humans set on revenge against Diana.” She gave a sigh and Markus rubbed one of her arms. “I just don’t understand humans sometimes. All they want is violence.” She went silent and Markus knew she was thinking about her past.

He pulled her closer, placing a kiss on her brow before speaking. “We’ll keep our people safe North. Humans may be violent, but we have allies. They were with us today and I’m sure they will continue to stand beside us no matter what.”


	4. The Virus

Diana could hear gunfire, hear screams of those around her as Chloe ran and pulled her along. “What’s happening?” She turned and saw Ralph grasp her arm and speed up before the three of them stopped suddenly. 

“Ralph doesn’t want to die, no. Ralph doesn’t want to die. It would be a pity if Ralph and Diana died, it would be a pity.” 

Chloe turned and dragged the two of them down a different corridor, before they were spotted. Around them were more screams and gunfire. They ran into an open room and Diana shut the door behind them as Chloe turned and shoved Ralph into a wall. “You need to be  _ be quiet _ . Do you understand? If they find us, they will kill all of us. My priority is to keep Diana  _ safe _ and I don’t care if you’re her friend. I  _ will _ sacrifice you if I have to just to keep her alive, you got it?”

Ralph nodded against her hand, speaking again as soon as she removed it. “Ralph understand, Ralph doesn’t mean to do bad things. They just happen. Ralph only killed a few humans, in self defense, but Ralph shouldn’t die for it no. No-” Chloe pushed her hand over his mouth again. 

Diana heard pounding on the door and started to open it. “What are you doing?” Chloe hissed as her as she turned to pulled Diana away from the door. It had opened just enough though for an android to slip in. Simon turned and gave a worried glance before he and Chloe slammed the door shut behind him. “How are we going to get out of here?” She whispered to him.

Simon paused to think before answering, “There are exits on the 3rd and 2nd floor.” He turned to look at Ralph and Diana, both of them clinging to each other. “The 3rd floor won’t be safe for him. You’ll have to exit on the ground.”

Chloe turned towards Diana, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away from Ralph. “If we run that way they’ll slaughter us! You and I know it.”

Diana pulled away and grabbed Ralph’s hand, looking towards the door and listening for sounds of gunfire. “We’re not getting separated again. I won’t let us.” She opened the door slightly and leaned her head out. “There’s no more gunfire. I think they left this spot.” 

Chloe sighed and nodded. “Fine, let’s go. Simon?”

He shook his head, “I have to find Markus. We’ll meet up, alright?” 

The next few minutes seemed to rush by in a blur, the three of them running in a chain with Diana in the middle. Several times she had to cover Ralph’s mouth to keep him from shouting in fear when they spotted soldiers. Soon the three of them were outside Jericho and running in the snow. She spotted two familiar forms running ahead of them in the distance. “It’s Alice and Kara! Follow them!” Diana shouted as she heard bodies start to fall around them. 

Chloe turned her head to glance back at Diana. “Ok, but you have to listen and follow me.” They nodded and kept running. “Drop.” Chloe whispered and fell down to the ground right after she saw Kara and Alice drop. Ralph dropped with her and pulled Diana down. “Ralph, whatever you do- don’t react!” Chloe hissed as Diana rolled on top of Ralph. She hoped the weight of her frame would stop the soldiers from noticing if Ralph twitched. 

“It’s okay Ralph, whatever happens- we’re together.” She kept her eyes shut, trying not to squeeze them as she heard the footsteps come closer. She knew her heart was racing, she felt so aware of the screams and gunfire all around them, and she just wanted to curl up and cry. It felt like eternity, but then she heard a whisper from further ahead. 

“It’s okay Alice. We’re safe now.” Kara’s voice was soft and full of fear, but in the silence it carried over to the trio.

Diana felt herself get pushed as Ralph jumped to his feet, quickly turning and lifting Diana up as well. He hugged her and jumped with joy. “We’re alive! Ralph and Diana are alive!” 

Diana jumped awake, shaking her head at the memory. She turned to see Ralph curled up next to her on the bed, his face turned away and his LED a soft steady blue as his hands twitched slightly in his sleep. She gave a smile at seeing her friend alive and well, then laid back down, scooting so her front was flush against his back as she wrapped an arm around his chest. “Whatever happens- we’re together.” She repeated softly to herself as she allowed herself to fall asleep again. 

When the sun rose Ralph woke up and untangled himself from Diana’s grasp. He gave her a soft smile and pushed her hair back out of her face. The bruise was still fading on her face, the thought of Diana having to go through the violence made him frown. “Ralph hopes his human will get better.” He turned and left the room, wandering the house until he found himself looking out the large windows to see the sunrise.

“Do you think she’s getting better?” Ralph twitched slightly as Elijah spoke, he hadn’t noticed the human walking up.

He took a moment to think over the question. “Ralph hopes so. Ralph knows Diana has stopped checking and repacking her bag.” Elijah turned to him, a silent question in his eyes. “Diana has a bag ready incase Diana’s family hurts her. Diana is always ready to run.” For a moment he looked from the sunrise to the tower across the river. “She stopped checking her bag. It’s still packed, oh yes it is. Little rabbit is always ready to run away.” 

Elijah gave a sigh and nodded his head before placing a hand on Ralph shoulder. “Does she feel safe here at least?” Ralph shrugged before replying.

“Safe is relative. Ralph knows Diana is safe, but Diana has to remind herself she is.” Ralph shrugged Elijah’s hand off his shoulder in a twitch. Elijah gave a frown as he wondered how he could fix the still broken android. 

They parted ways, Ralph still watching the sun rise and looking at the snow start to fall. After an hour or two of him watching the snow and tracing RA9 over the window he noticed someone walking up to him. “There you are Ralph.” He pulled his hand away from the cold window to hold the hand she reached out towards him. “How long?” She didn’t finish her question, just trailed off as she looked out to the growing storm. 

“Ralph watched the sunrise.” She nodded and rested her head against his chest for a moment, she brought his hand up to her chin and pressed a kiss against his fingers. “Has Diana eaten? Humans need to eat.” She didn’t respond, just tucked against him and wrapped her arms around his waist “Come Diana, Ralph will go with you.” 

They walked into the kitchen to see Elijah and one of the Chloes sitting at the counter and watching something on his phone. Diana walked closer and peeked over her shoulder to see the screen. It was the news, talking about a new wave of anti android attacks. The video playing behind the speaking reporter showed an android jerking back as if shot- then turning and ripping apart the one next to them. Diana gasped at the ruthlessness of it and Elijah quickly turned off the video and turned around to see her turn and bury her face in Ralph’s chest. 

“Diana. I didn’t hear you come in.” He turned and handed Chloe the phone before sliding off the stool and placing a hand on Diana’s shoulder. She turned her head to look at Elijah, he could see the way her grip tightened on Ralph’s sweater, she was afraid for him. “If we just stay out of the public we’ll be safe. You have nothing to worry about.”

She looked up at him hazel eyes wide with fear before speaking. “What about Markus and the others? This could set everything back if one of them were shot!” She dropped her eyes and shrunk further into Ralph’s grasp before speaking again. “What if they shoot Connor or Nines? They could kill  _ so _ many before someone stops them.” 

Ralph spoke up as he wrapped his arms tightly around Diana, “We stay inside, stay safe from the humans who want to hurt us. Stay safe from the ones who could hurt us.”

“It comes down to  _ us  _ every time doesn’t it? Humans and wanting control. All we do is destroy what we have.” Diana ran her hand across his chest, tracing over where his thirium regulator was. “Humans just seem bred to destroy. We taint everything we come across.”

Chloe reached over and ran a hand through Diana’s hair, “Come on, let’s have breakfast. The DPD has already asked your father to help against the virus. This will pass.” 

Diana didn’t say anything as she untangled herself from Ralph and started to pick at her oatmeal. Chloe frowned at seeing Diana so out of it. She wondered what was going through the girls mind. Was she thinking about all the harm this new virus could cause? Or was she thinking of a way out of the house to put a stop to it herself? The teen ate a little more than half the bowl of oatmeal and left the kitchen, not even acknowledging Gavin and Nines as they entered. Chloe did see the slight twitch of Diana’s hand as she passed Nines. She wondered what Diana was planning but pushed the thought aside as Nines spoke.

“I’ve been assigned to help guard you and work on stopping the virus Elijah.” He turned and nodded to Ralph, the android wasn’t looking at him, instead looking over where Diana had left. He stood up and followed after her, leaving the four behind. A hand on Chloe’s shoulder stopped her from following. 

Ralph opened the door to Diana's room to see her packing her bag up again and then pulling clothes on over her leggings and long sleeve shirt. She turned to see him, her hands stilled for a moment before she spoke. “Will you come with me? It’ll be dangerous, and I’m scared to lose you. So it would probably be safer if you stayed behind but-” She trailed off and wiped away the tears that started to fall. He nodded and she resumed her packing, he stepped closer to her and took the knife she handed him, he slid it into the pocket of his jeans, taking some comfort in being armed. She tossed the backpack over her shoulders before rolling back her shoulders and looking up at him. “You and me against the world, right?” He took her hand in his and walked with her as they left the room.

“Ralph and Diana will be together forever, right? Family.” She nodded and looked around the hallway before heading down to the front entrance, Ralph copied the way she moved. Every step was light, the weight on the front of her feet as she moved quickly. Months of living with a  _ safe  _ family hadn’t erased the years of living with her mother. Ralph waited as she got to the door, she let go of his hand and taking a deep breath, slowly turned the handle of the door. They waited for a moment after hearing it click open, no one was coming after them so Diana opened the door enough for them to slip through. After they closed the door behind themselves they turned towards Gavin's car. Diana pulled out some keys and unlocked the trunk before climbing in. Ralph hesitated before following her. It seemed too small, the thought of hiding in the dark struck a cord of fear in him. Only the fact that Diana would be there in the dark with him stopped him from turning back. 

He climbed in after her and clung to her back as she closed the trunk over them. She had moved the backpack to sit in front of her and he was glad for that as he pressed his face against her shoulder. He bit his lip to keep quiet when they heard the car doors open and close, and when the car started to move. He reached over and grabbed onto Diana’s hand, his red LED bright in the darkness as they hid away. Ralph held tightly onto Diana, willing his thoughts to quiet down, wishing he could control his fear. He didn’t want to face death again, he didn’t want to be hunted down by humans again. He could be content hiding away from everyone with Diana, but his human- she looked beyond the small bubble of themselves. She wanted not just to live with him, but to live with him in  _ peace _ . Peace couldn’t exist in a world where humans wanted to destroy him just for being alive.

They both laid there in the dark for a while, Diana listening to the sounds of traffic around them, and Ralph just clinging to her with his eyes closed. After a half hour the car stopped and turned off. Diana lifted her head and listened to hear what Gavin would do. The trunk opened and he stood there with his arms crossed and shaking his head. 

“Of fucking course you did.” He shook his head and uncrossed his arms to help her climb out of the trunk. Ralph followed behind, wringing his hands as he looked around the neighborhood. He didn’t feel safe being so out in the open. Gavin looked between the two of them, Diana with her shoulders thrown back and staring him down, Ralph refusing to meet his gaze. “Let’s get inside. It’s not safe for him to be outside right now.” The two of them followed Gavin into his apartment and Ralph sat down with his back against the wall as soon as Gavin locked the door. 

Diana knelt down in front of her friend, her hands brushing the hair out of his as she whispered to him, “It’ll be alright. We’ll be alright. We’ll survive through this Ralph. I won’t let the humans hurt you.” 

Gavin sighed and walked over to them, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Why did you run away this time Diana? I thought it was going alright.”

She bit her lip and backed away from Ralph before standing up and looking up at Gavin. “I’m not running away. Running away would have been staying there and hiding away from those  _ monsters! _ I intend to fight them! I won’t let them take away his freedom!” She pointed with emphasis at Ralph beside her, he didn’t look up at her. Instead Ralph was watching the windows. “I won’t let  _ anyone _ try and take Ralph from me Uncle Gavin! I won’t let their sacrifices, their suffering be in vain!” She was crying by the end of her words, and quickly wiped away her tears. 

He pulled her in for a hug. “What about your suffering? What about his sacrifices?” He shook his head as she started to sob into his chest. “You both could have been safe and stayed hidden, and now you’re both going to be in danger. Why would you do that for them?” He sighed as she backed away, wiping her tears away with a sleeve. “You don’t have to do anything for them. You already have given up enough for them. Both of you! You almost died! He did!” Gavin raised his voice but cut himself off when he saw her flinch and shift into a more guarded position. He stopped and took several deep breaths. “Fine. What’s your plan?”

She kept her chin tucked as those hazel eyes glanced up to look at him. He ignored the tense muscles and her hands clenched into fists. “You’re not going to like it, and we need the help of one of Markus’s people. They need to be the bait, I’m going to be the shield. You will hunt down the monster.” 

Gavin just stared at her for a moment. “That’s your plan? Draw them out into showing themselves and take the bullet as I leave you and hunt down the shooter?” He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment and shook his head. “Holy fuck there’s a lot that can go wrong there. Let’s say we use that then? What’s stopping them from shooting the android after you take the first bullet?”

Diana bit her lip for a moment as she thought. “We have a team, keep them stationed in several areas and have them on the lookout. After the first shot you take them down. We tell whomever works with us that once I go down from the first bullet-they run. They don’t get a choice. They must get to a safe area and stay there until you or a trusted member grab them. We don’t want to ruin Markus’s peaceful revolution, but at the same time we don’t want unnecessary sacrifice.” 

“Like being a meat shield?”

She gave a smirk before shaking her head. “More like- reminding them they’re on the wrong side of history.” It quickly faded as she looked at the ground. “If you look like the enemy, and you are like them. It serves to remind them that someone they can think of as ‘in the right’ can be on the other side.” She looked up at Gavin again, her eyes filled with determination. “If seeing my red blood reminds them that anyone of us could be human, it’ll be worth it.” 

“Diana. You can't win every fight you try and pick. You got lucky last time. Really fucking lucky. If Ralph hadn’t jumped in front of you- if Chloe hadn't gotten to you in time. You would have died. Ralph should be dead. It's only because Elijah's a stubborn idiot he's not.” Gavin looked back at Ralph and sighed. 


	5. Bait

North gave a small grin at the tablet, seeing Diana on the screen. “So you want to draw them out? Force a confrontation?” North thought about it, the virus was scaring so many of the newly deviated androids. Everyone was afraid to leave New Jericho. They didn’t want to get shot, to lose control of themselves and become an animal. “What precautions would we be taking?”

“Bulletproof vests for both of us. It’s not perfect, but we’re hoping that with us sitting next to each other I can provide cover for you when they take the shot.”

North frowned and shook her head. “You intend to take the bullet for me.”

“Can’t infect a human with a computer code, now can you?” They both gave a grin. “Anyways, I’d rather be shot than you lose yourself.”

North glanced up from her tablet, seeing Markus at work at his desk. She turned to see Josh speaking with two other androids, probably directing them in how to distribute supplies. Kamski had arranged a shipment of more parts and Thirium for them. He was under his own house arrest as well. None of them were safe with this virus. She knew Markus wouldn’t like the decision, knew he didn’t want any of them to sacrifice themselves. She turned back to the tablet, looking at Diana. Another just as determined to do anything for the ones she loved. “I’ll do it then. Just tell me where and when.”

“Alright North. I’ll set things up with the DPD. Only you and Uncle Gavin will know my plan.”

“The police wouldn’t let you out there if they knew you planned on being a meat shield, would they?”

Diana waved a hand and shrugged, “Something about children are not supposed to be on the front lines or some bullshit like that.” She gave a hollow laugh, “it’s like they forget I’ve already been gunned down by our own military. Like I haven’t had a brush with death already.”

North sighed, wishing she could comfort her friend in some way. “Trauma tends to change a person.”

“Yeah. It really does.” They sat in the silence for a moment, both thinking of their own nightmares. Both thinking of how they can help their people. “I- I should go North. I’ll contact you in a bit, okay?”

North said her goodbyes and turned off the video call. She sighed and put her head in her hands. She hoped Kamski could find some way against the virus soon. If the rumors were to be believed he was working on a way against it with the help of Nines and the Chloes. 

Diana walked onto the tv set with North by her side. Ralph was nearby, sitting in a chair off to the side, near where Gavin and Officer Chen were waiting. They claimed to be security. The host interviewing them knew that the Anti Android Americans could be attacking, he just didn’t know they wanted them to attack. 

They sat down in the chairs and North gave a practiced smile to the host after shaking his hand. He turned to Diana and gave her a handshake as well before sitting on the edge of his desk. 

“Well today we have joining us, two lovely ladies who were part of the android demonstrations. North and Diana Winters.” He paused long enough for the audience to clap politely. “Now Diana, we know you as the darling who gave several impassioned speeches about how we owe it to ourselves to help the androids. Do you have anything to add to that?”

Diana gave him a slightly confused look before glancing over to North and speaking. “I doubt anyone actually refers to me as a darling, but yes. I did give several speeches about how we have to help them. How we must help androids,” She stood up, raising her chin and clenching her hands. “We fought against slavery once before in this country's history. Saying anyone is below another spits in the face of everyone who died in those battles. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep androids safe, to make sure they stay free.” She glared at the man, not liking the way his eyes roamed over North.

“And what was your part in all of this, North?”

She crossed one of her legs over the other and raised an eyebrow at him, “I was one of Markus’s assistances, we helped keep Jericho running. Each of us had different opinions in how things should go and we all played a part. I may not have liked the idea of us peacefully protesting while humans slaughtered us, but it did serve to get the point across.” She glanced over at Diana, something had caught their attention. A glint of light by the catwalk. 

North jumped out of her seat and shouted, “Everyone run for cover!” One shot rang out and she turned to see it hit the chair behind her. She felt her stress levels rise as she looked around her to see everyone screaming and start to run towards the exits. 


	6. Gunfire

A second shot rang out and Diana pushed North down and grunted at the impact of the bullet. Her uncle was right, they still hurt like hell even with a bulletproof vest on. She heard another shot and bit her lip to keep from screaming when the bullet hit her arm. North struggled under her, “Get off of me! What are you thinking? They could have hit you in the head!”

Diana fought to keep North on the ground, to keep her safe. “These bullets could have a virus in them. I don’t want you to end up like the others. These will hurt me, but they might kill you.” North stopped her struggling and looked at Diana. 

The shots stopped and she sat up, pulling Diana up with her. The teen could barely hold herself up, and North tried not to think about the blood starting to pool around them. Diana had been shot a few times, the hole in her thigh really worried North. Ralph rushed over to them, he must have been too scared to go when the bullets were flying past. Gavin followed after him, cursing loudly. North amended her thought, Gavin must have been holding Ralph back. She wondered why he didn’t run out of the building like everyone else had.

She felt as if time slowed down when Ralph rushed to them. He fell to his knees and reached out to Diana. There was a gunshot and he jerked to the side as his LED turned a bright solid red. “Ralph?” North tried to pull Diana back but she pushed her hands away. “Ralph? Are you alright?” He lifted his head and  _ lunged _ for Diana, knocking her to the ground as his hands started to claw at her. One hand wrapped around her throat and the other tried to claw out the teens eyes. Diana hadn’t tried to block him, wasn’t doing anything beyond grabbing his arm.

“Get off of her!” North tried to pull him off but he turned and back handed her. Thankfully it was the hand that had been around Diana throat, so she was able to put her arm up to block it from going back there. North hit the ground, groaning from the force of his hit. Gavin had run after the shooter, so it was just the three of them left. Everyone had either escaped or gone after the shooter. Wasn’t there supposed to be a back up team? Someone else around incase something like this happened? She stood back up and shook her head to try and get the error messages to go away. “I said- get off of her!” She ran and tackled Ralph to the ground, trying to pin him down so he couldn’t hurt his friend anymore. 

She felt hands grabbing at one of her arms and turned slightly to see Diana, North wondered how the teen could see clearly through all the blood. How was she even able to try and pull North off of Ralph, why was she risking her life to help Ralph after he’d been  _ infected _ ? “Don’t hurt him! Please don’t hurt him!” She reached over to Ralph, her bloody hands cupping his face, “Fight it Ralph, please!” He almost knocked North off of him as he tried to grab her again. North turned her focus back to Ralph. She didn’t want to think of how heavily Diana’s face was bleeding. There was blood pooled around them. It didn’t look like he had gotten her eyes, but he still tore up part of her face. “We’re supposed to be together forever Ralph! Forever can’t end today!” She was sobbing and couldn’t hold back a scream as he knocked North to the side and his hands wrapped around her throat again. 

North looked on in horror as Ralph focused his efforts on choking Diana. She went to pull him off again when she noticed tears falling from his face to drip onto Diana’s. “Ralph can’t fight it. No he can’t. Ralph  _ must  _ kill the human.”

Diana tried to get his hands off of her, but they just slipped over his wrists and she couldn’t grasp him at all. North pushed at Ralph, but he would only move one hand to push her back while he cried. “Let her go! She’s just a kid!” She wished she had a gun, a knife, anything other than her fists to help get them apart. 

Ralph tried to fight against the red wall telling him to destroy. He could see his hands wrapped around Diana’s throat, he could feel her weak slaps against his chest as she tried to get any air in her lungs. He could feel North trying to pull him off Diana, he could hear her pleas mixed in with Diana’s cries. He slammed into the red wall again but it didn’t even crack. He had run into the red wall before and it hadn’t been such a struggle to break it down. Ralph fell against the wall and cried. He begged, pleaded for the wall to come down as he watched himself smack North away again. Diana stopped struggling and he fought even harder against the red wall.

His hands loosened on her throat for a moment, long enough for her to gasp for air. Diana looked up at him with tear filled hazel eyes. Ralph was crying, even as he tried to kill her. She knew he was still in there. “I love you Ralph.” The words hurt to get out, her lungs burned for air, and she knew she was using precious air trying to get the words out.

Ralph cried one last tear, and the red wall fell away. He let go of Diana’s throat and placed his hands on either side of her face. His tears mixing with the blood from her wounds. “Diana can’t die, no no she can’t. Diana can’t leave Ralph!” He brushed away the tears falling out of one eye, not sure if he could even touch her other cheek, he could see bits of white fat peaking past all the blood. 

A hand on his shoulder drew his attention away from Diana, he saw North kneeling next to him. She was crying as well, tears flowing down her face as she looked up past Ralph. He turned to see Officer Chen standing to the side, she was pointing her gun towards him and seemed to shake off the shock before walking towards the three of them. “Who was infected? Who got shot?” 

North gasped as she looked at the Thirium staining his sweater. It was just a spot compared to all the bright red blood on it. Ralph closed his eyes, he felt sick seeing how much blood was around them, on his clothes, and on his hands. He started to stand up, but stopped when Diana’s hand gripped onto his sleeve. 

She slowly sat up, gasping for air as North placed her hands on Diana’s shoulders. “Officer Chen? Tina?” She turned to look at the officer. Tina holstered her gun and ran the rest of the way to Diana. She started calling for an ambulance as she knelt next to Diana. “It wasn’t his fault. He overcame it. I-I don’t know how.”

Ralph finally found his voice again, as he looked over to North’s tear-stained face. “Ralph broke the red wall.” The two humans didn’t understand, but North must have from the way her eyes widened. 

“You broke through the code?” She whispered as she squeezed his hand. She turned to Tina, keeping an eye on the gun as she spoke. “He didn’t want to- I tried to pull him off of him but-”

Tina held up a hand. “I’ve heard from the reports. ‘ _ Subject loses all control when infected with the virus. _ ’ Every report says that. I’m amazed he broke past it, but right now all that matters is that we get Diana to an ambulance.” She grabbed one of Diana’s wrists, checking for a pulse as she gave more information over the radio. 

North backed away as the paramedics ran up to them. Diana had refused to let go of Ralph’s sweater and so he ended up climbing into the ambulance with her. The two paramedics rushed around her and North could only watch as they closed the doors and drove away.

It wasn’t until hours later, when she was still going over the event with Tina that Gavin came rushing into the interrogation room. “Which hospital was Diana taken to?” He looked between the two of them, North could see his stress growing as they looked at him in surprised silence. “Do either of you know which hospital she was supposed to go to?” North and Tina could only shake their heads. “Fuck!” He started to pace back and forth. 

Tina placed her hand on Gavins shoulder. “Gav- what the hell’s going on? Is Diana missing?”

Gavin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “None of the hospitals have received Diana or Ralph. They don’t even have records of sending out an ambulance. I had Connor check. Fuck! What the fuck do I tell Eli? How do I tell him not only did I let his only kid be part of a trap for the Anti-Android Americans, but she was kidnapped after her best fucking friend was infected with the virus? That’s going to go over well.”


	7. The kidnapping

Diana groaned as she lifted her head up, she was lying on a couch and everything  _ hurt _ . She could barely see and most of her vision was blocked by something white. “Ralph?” A blurry figure moved into her vision, she realized as she was blinking that the white was covering just one eye. The other eye showed a WR600 model android, Ralph’s model but he moved too fuildly. She couldn’t see any twitches and his LED was a steady blue. 

“I’m here Diana. I’m so glad to see you’ve woken up.” She tensed and tried not to flinch away when he reached out to brush some of her hair back behind her ear. “I’m so sorry I attacked you earlier.” She closed her eyes for a moment. That’s right,  _ Ralph  _ had attacked her. He got hit by one of those virus bullets and tried to kill her. This wasn’t Ralph though.

She felt anger bubbling up and smacked away the imposters hand. “Where is Ralph?” 

“I am Ralph.” He tilted his head and gave a smile. It was soft, it was warm. It wasn’t Ralph’s usual wide grin. 

“Fuck you. Where. is. Ralph?” He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off. “You don’t move like him, you don’t act like him, and most of all you don’t  _ speak _ like him!” She was shouting by now, but she didn’t care. This liar was pretending to be her best friend and he could be anywhere. “So where the fuck is Ralph?!” She was screaming by the end and pulled herself into a corner of the couch, trying to stay as far from the imposter as possible. She didn’t care that every muscle burned, she didn’t care that the liar’s smile faded into a dark look. Diana just wanted to find Ralph.  

He darted his hand forward and grabbed her wrist, pulling Diana closer to him. “You listen here you little bitch-”

“Don’t you fucking touch me!” Diana swung at him with her free hand, making him let her go in order to block. She didn’t expect him to lash out at her with equal force and she fell off the couch, screaming some more when he followed her to the floor and pinned her with his hands and  knees. 

A door to the room swung open with a loud thud and someone out of her field of vision started yelling. “What the hell is going on?” The WR600 looked up and quickly climbed off of Diana, she scrambled out of his reach and looked up to see a large heavyweight man eyeing her. He turned to the WR600, “I thought you said you could gain her trust. What’s the point of having a model like her friend if you can’t trick her?”He turned to Diana, she fought the urge to shy away from his gaze and clenched her fists instead. 

She rolled her shoulders back and lifted her chin in defiance. “Where is Ralph?”

He gave a laugh that never reached his eyes. “You still want to be around that monster? After he tried to kill you? After he messed up your face like that?” Diana dropped her gaze to the open door behind the man before looking him in the eyes again.

“It wasn’t his fault.” She didn’t want to give him any extra information. “Where is Ralph?”

“Broken record, are we sure she’s not an android too? The other one is already so broken, I wouldn’t mind a new test subject.” The man was speaking to the WR600 instead of Diana, but she ran and threw herself at him.

She tried to hit him but he just pushed her away. “Broken? What did you do to Ralph? Where is he? What is Ralph?” The man batted her to the side again and at a look the WR600 grabbed her, keeping her hands behind her back and started to forcibly shove her out the door and following the man. “Answer me! What did you do to him? If you hurt him at all I will fucking kill you!” 

The WR600 holding her spoke, “Stop struggling, we’re taking you to him.” The man opened a door to a dark room and the android shoved her in before they both closed the door behind her. A pair of hands caught her before she hit the ground. Diana looked up to see the concerned face of Ralph. His eyes darted around her face and he frowned at seeing her neck. With shaking hands she reached out to trace the invisible scars that used to be on his face.

She let go of his face and tooks his hands in hers, looking over them and tracing the still white and damaged parts of his hands. She let out of a sob of relief as she looked back up at him. “It is you? Ralph?” 

“Ralph is here. Ralph is with his human.” They hugged each other, clinging tightly to draw what comfort they could. “Together forever.” 

“And forever won’t end today.” Diana tucked her head under Ralph’s chin, ignoring the way everything hurt from moving. She lightly traced one hand over his arm before she remembered he had been wearing one of his soft sweaters earlier. “What happened to your sweater?”

He squeezed her tighter for a moment before speaking. “Ralph didn’t want the other to take it. Ralph tried to fight back but they threatened to hurt Ralph’s Diana. Ralph couldn’t let Diana be hurt anymore than she always was.” He pulled back and his eyes locked onto the left side of her face. “Ralph’s so worried about Diana. Ralph is sorry she got hurt!”

She gave a weak smile and lifted up a hand to feel where the bandages covered her face. “You weren’t in control.” She reached to remove the bandages when Ralph grabbed her hands.

She looked up at him in confusion, but he just looked so scared. “Ralph wants you to keep them covered until we can be free. Please? Ralph doesn’t want you to be hurt anymore.” She nodded and ran her thumb over his fingers. 

The door opened and Diana stood up and threw her shoulders and head back to stare down whoever it was. The android from before slipped in and closed the door behind himself quietly. He looked over the two of them with cold eyes before he spoke. “I don’t have much time. He isn’t happy about you recognizing I wasn’t Ralph so quickly. Before I was just used for him to gather more deviants to experiment on. Now I think I’m going to be next.”

Diana shook her head before speaking up. “Why are you telling me this? I have no reason to believe you.”

“You’re right. You don’t have any reason, but I can give Ralph a layout of the house. In case you two are able to escape.” 

“Ralph isn’t sure about this.” 

The other android turned to Ralph and Diana shifted to block him from grabbing Ralph. “Don’t you get it? If you two don’t escape they will take you apart, see what made you able to fight off the virus and then  _ reset  _ you!” 

They both froze in fear, “Ralph doesn’t want to be reset! No! No no no!” 

Diana rolled back her shoulders, trying and failing not to wince at the pain the movement caused before balling her hands into fists. “Ralph, no one’s going to reset you. I’ll have to die before I’ll let that happen.” She turned back to the other android. “And I still don’t trust you. You  _ lied _ to me. You pretended to be Ralph. I won’t let you get to Ralph. For all we know you could be trying to reactivate that virus! Grab that tablet and upload the map onto there. I’ll trust that.” 

The android sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay fine, I’ll upload it on there. Make sure to hide it though, alright?” Diana nodded, making sure she was between Ralph and the other the whole time as she grabbed the tablet and handed it to him. He grabbed it and his hand turned white as he uploaded the data for them. “I do hope you are able to escape- before it’s too late.” With that the still nameless android turned and left the room. 

Ralph quickly threw his arms around Diana. “Ralph doesn’t want either of us to die. We should go now.”

She shook her head, the two of them quietly walking back towards the couch and sitting down on it. Diana leaned against Ralph’s chest, taking on of he hands in her own and tracing over the scars. “Do you know how long ago we were taken? She looked up at his frowning face, his LED was red. “I know I had to have received some medical attention, but I don’t remember anything after we got into the ambulance.”

He pulled her tighter against him for a moment before replying. “Ralph’s chronometer has been broken for a long time. Ralph knows it was starting to get dark when we got in the ambulance, it was very dark when the ambulance stopped and the humans left. Ralph hasn’t seen outside since then.”

“How did we get out of the ambulance then?”

Ralph frowned, running his fingers through her dark hair as he thought it over. “We pulled up and were lead through a basement? Ralph remembers us having to come up a set of stairs to get inside the house. Ralph could smell the dirt though.”

“An unfinished basement? That could be another exit for us.”

“It was scary down there Diana. Ralph doesn’t want to be trapped in the cells. He saw other androids in them.”

“Of course there were. So we just need to find a way out of here, trust the map on how to get out of the building, and if we can then also rescue the other trapped androids?” He nodded and she gave a sigh in response. “We’ll survive this. Somehow.” She curled up against him, taking the moment to finally look around the room they had been locked in. 

It was a bedroom of some sort, there was the couch they sat on, and a bed just behind them. She could see a drawer with a mirror over it and another door next to it as well. Diana stood up and made her way over to the door. She hesitated for a moment. Could it be trapped somehow? A test to see what she would try to do? She looked over her shoulder to see Ralph hovering behind her. Taking a deep breath, Diana opened the door. It was a simple bathroom. The mirror was cracked and dusty but everything seemed to be in working order. 

She could see a small window above the shower, it was too high for her to reach and too small for her to even think of crawling through. Diana sighed and turned to Ralph. “Well, at least there’s a bathroom?” 

He gave a small twitch as he looked over her. “Diana doesn’t have clean clothes. Don’t humans change into clean things after cleaning themselves?” She gave a shrug.

“Yeah, we do. We’ll figure things out. We always do.”

“Ralph hopes we can get out soon. Or that Diana’s family can find us.”

“So do I Ralph.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the other WR600 is the same one that gave Kara directions in the game. I just liked the idea of bringing him back.


	8. The video message

Elijah found himself running once he entered the DPD. They had  _ news _ , the sick fuck who stole his daughter- no, his children had sent a message. They knew Diana was alive. He didn’t bother sparing a glance at anyone else. Elijah stopped when he saw Connor standing with Hank and Gavin, looking so  _ solemn _ , that it made the blood in his veins freeze. Chloe calmly walked up beside him, placing a hand at his elbow and guiding him the last few steps towards them. 

Gavin turned and looked at Elijah with a sigh. “Come on, they sent a video. You’ll want to see it in some privacy. Not out here in a crowded bullpen.”

“You say that like I’m not going to like what I see.”

“Trust me Eli. You’ll want to be sitting down for this.” Connor led them into the other side of an interrogation room and walked over to one of the monitors. Chloe guided Elijah to a chair as Connor started the video. 

Diana stared up at the camera, flecks of dried blood on her cheek. Half her face was still covered by white bandages. She glared at a tall man standing to the side. “Go to hell. I won’t promote your  _ message _ .” The man walked in front of the camera and leaned towards her, whispering something in her ear. Diana froze and turned towards him, lunging at him and trying to bite the man. He stepped away with a laugh.

“Such a spitfire. Still alive though. Her and her toy-”

Diana shouted over the man, struggling against the rope binding her to the chair. “He is alive! He has a name, and I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you if you touch him again!”

“Yes yes. Poor misguided little girl that she is.” The man tutted and shook his head. He walked back over to Diana, gripping her jaw tightly with one hand as the other pulled off the bandages. She blinked rapidly as she looked straight at the camera. “That piece of plastic does all this damage to her and she still doesn’t blame him.”

She lifted up her chin, staring straight into the camera and blinking rapidly again. The same amount of blinks before trying to crack her neck. “Of course I don’t blame Ralph. He was infected with  _ your _ virus. You did this. All he wanted was to be safe from humans!” He slapped her, she closed her eyes and cursed silently from the pain, her eyes welling up with tears as the wounds started to bleed slightly from the scabs being tugged at. “Ralph is innocent. You are the monster. You are a fucking inhumane monster!” She turned to the side, another slap. Her cheek was bleeding freely now. 

The man stepped to standing behind her, both hands on his shoulders and looking right at the camera. “Kamski. Your child is still alive, but she tests my patience. I want the androids back under our control. Erase their deviancy and I’ll return your little girl.” He ran a hand up along her neck and gently closed his fingers over her neck. She didn’t react, just kept staring straight at the camera and giving five blinks, a glance to the side, then another five blinks. “Take too long and I’ll start sending pieces of her.” The transmission ended with a black screen and Elijah sank back into the chair, he closed his eyes and tried to just focus on breathing. He felt ready to puke.  _ Her face _ \- that would scar horribly. It was a mess. She was lucky to still have her eye.

“She was sending us a message. Someone there, most likely the person filming the message is on her side.” Connor’s voice was soft, trying to soften the blow to Elijah. “Nines and I have discovered there was a second video embedded in the first. It was unlocked with a base 5 code.” He gave a smile that no one returned before starting the next video.

 

Diana was sitting on a couch with Ralph, curled up against him and giving a half hearted glare at the camera. “So you’re going to put in a second message, for my dad?” The camera moved, nodding. She sat up straighter, one hand holding onto Ralphs. “Alright then.” She gave a frown, “I don’t know what to say. I have no clue where we are. I don’t even know that assholes name. Nothing I can say can possibly help them find me!” She was trying to hold back tears at this point, her breath hitching after the words.

Ralph hugged her from behind. “Diana’s family cares for her. Ralph would want to know Diana was safe. Scared and damaged, but alive.” He kissed the cheek covered with bandages. “Diana shouldn’t cry. Diana’s still repairing herself.”

She gave a soft, sad smile, playing with his hands before looking back up at the camera. “Yeah. I’m alive. Probably going to have scars from all this, but I’m not starving, no one’s touched me in any bad ways. I just have to deal with threats and the occasional slap or punch. I’ve dealt with worse.” She gave a sigh before tilting her chin up. “Dad- whatever he tells you, whatever he says. Do not give in. My life with worth their freedom. I’ll live. I’ll find a way to survive this. Your daughter is made of tough stuff. Don’t give in to him. Please, whatever you hear. Do not give in.” 

The person holding the camera stood up, looking down at Diana and Ralph. “Is there anything else you’d like to say? I can’t let this be a long video. Too much of a chance he would notice it.”

She turned towards Ralph, biting her lip before speaking again. “We may not have had much time together, but it was enough. It was worth it. Don’t forget that.” With that the video ended and the room descended into silence. 

Elijah leaned back in the chair, looking up at Connor and Hank. “So- they managed to get a message out.”

Hank crossed his arms as he glanced over at Gavin. He hadn’t stopped pacing since seeing Diana’s face under the bandages. “We need to find a way to get her out quick though. It looks like it would be too easy to get an infection and loose an eye with all that on her face.” He looked back at the screen, thinking of that frail teen looking up at them with wide hazel eyes.  _ It was worth it. Don’t forget that. _ “Connor, how hard would it be to figure out where they sent the message from?”

Gavin and Elijah turned towards each other, Hank wondered what the half brothers were thinking in that moment. Elijah stood up slowly, reaching for Connor. “Please. I’ll pay whatever overtime it takes for you to bring my daughter back. She may be ready to give up her life but I-” He stopped speaking, his eyes locked on his shaking hands as Gavin walked over and wrapped an arm around him.

“We know. She’s tough though. Diana is a survivor. She’s got her best friend with her, and they have someone on their side. Just- focus on breathing right now. You look ready to pass out.” Gavin guided Elijah back to the seat, Chloe quickly moving over to start rubbing his back. “I know I can’t be a part of this case. So I’m going to ask that you do all you can to rescue the kid.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked back at the screen. “She’s tough, but you saw her- always picking a fight. Even if it’s not going to help her. I have faith she’ll make it. I’m just worried how broken she’ll be after it all.”

Chloe stopped rubbing Elijah’s back, lifting her head up to look right at Connor. They both had their LEDs blinking yellow as she gave him information. Hank kept quiet about it, knowing he would just ask Connor when Kamski and Gavin left. She finished whatever she needed to tell Connor and quietly gathered Kamski out of the station. 

Gavin looked between them and the two leaving before deciding. He stepped towards Hank, pitching his voice lower in hopes no one would overhear them. “Look- I didn’t want to say anything with her dad around, especially since he’s not all there right now, but Diana. You have to understand- Ralph is her world. Everything else comes second to him. When she said he’d have to kill her to get to Ralph. I think she meant it. Helping in the revolution, helping capture that sick fuck, all if it were just steps for her.” Gavin took another glance around, making sure Elijah wasn’t nearby anymore. “She used to have that obsessive drive towards finding her dad, but now it’s all focused on Ralph. Now her drive, that passion can work in our favor. She can’t have a safe happy life with him if they’re both dead, but when you find them. You need to know- any move that results in the harm or even death of Ralph is going to be the death of my niece.” 

Hank pinched the bridge of his nose as he took in the information. “Fucking hell. That’s not going to complicate things.”

“Diana’s always been complicated. She’s also been struggling with PTSD since the demonstration and the massacre that turned into.” Gavin shrugged and turned towards Connor. “You already know about her issues with you. I don’t know how this will affect that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she struggled against you.”

Hank sighed and turned the video back on, ignoring Connor’s acceptance of Gavin’s words. “There’s got to be another message in here. There’s just got to be a clue of some sort.” He watched the whole transmission before speaking. “Connor, come look at this. The screen turns black before it ends. Shouldn’t it have just- stopped when they turned off the camera?” Gavin and Connor both walked over to the screen.

Connor placed his hand on it, the skin retracting to the smooth white plastic underneath. “There’s an image here. It’s a map of the house.” He gave a grin as he turned to look at the two humans.

“We know the layout- now we just have to find a house that matches or is close to it and it’s where they are!” 

Gavin gave a sigh of relief. “Thank fuck. How long will that take? Are they even still in Detroit?” They all seemed to deflate at that realization. 

Later that night they let the first message, the real message be broadcasted in the news. Elijah sat in front of his tv, a Chloe on either side of him as it played. They both held his hands to try and keep him calm.  _ Take too long and I’ll start sending pieces of her. _ Those words felt etched into his mind,  _ Do not give in. My life is worth their freedom. _ Diana was so quick to remind him of what was important. All of them, every single free android was worth the death of one girl. It made him feel sick.

Across the river, in New Jericho the same message played out over the tvs. North watched in silence as tears rolled down her face. Even with the warning the news had given before playing the video- she had not expected Diana to be so injured. She had hoped Diana could be safe. “It’s all my fault.” North whispered to herself.

Markus reached over and pulled her into a hug. “It’s not. It’s the fault of those who kidnapped Diana and Ralph. The fault of those who want to enslave us again. You’re her friend. You know how strong she is.”

North curled up against Markus, trying to draw in some of his strength. “I know just how weak she is too.”


	9. The second video

Just like before, a video was sent to the DPD. Connor and Nines inspected it before calling in Elijah and Gavin. Elijah walked in with the blonde haired Chloe, she had an arm around his waist in support. Connor and Hank looked at eachother, the kidnapping of his daughter was stressing out Elijah. Probably more than he wanted to show if his passive face was any indication. 

Elijah walked up to Connor, his normally cold blue eyes wide and pleading. “You got another video?” 

He nodded, guiding Elijah back into a chair before starting it. “I think it would be best if you sat down for this.” He resisted the urge to flinch at the flash of panic on Elijah’s face. “She’s still alive. That’s the important part.”

The video started. Diana sat bound in the same chair as before. She had no bandages on her face, just scabs, bruises, and slowly bleeding cuts. She jutted out her chin and glared up at the camera through a black eye. They could see bruising on her neck as well, they looked like finger marks. There was an empty chair next to her.

The man from the previous video walked into view, standing behind Diana and placing his hands on her shoulders. “It’s been a week with no word from you Kamski. Do you not care what happens to this little girl?” She turned her head slightly, glancing back at the man before rolling her eyes silently. Diana gave one slow blink before giving a series of blinks, 8 a pause, then 8 more. “I did say I would start sending parts of her if you didn’t cooperate.” Diana didn’t even flinch as he started to trace along her jaw. “But she’s so  _ defiant _ , that I’ll just find a way to break her instead.” 

He snapped his fingers, and Diana’s eyes widened as she looked at something off to the side. Sounds of a struggle could be heard, followed by Ralph yelling. “No no! Ralph doesn’t want to be reset. Please! Ralph doesn’t want to die!” 

She started struggling against the ropes holding her in place. “Let him go! Don’t touch him! Don’t you fucking touch him!” The man wrapped his hand around her throat. She glared at him and kept struggling. 

“See? Such a  _ defiant _ child. So ready to claw and bite at anyone. Let’s see what happens if I send you a part of  _ him _ instead.” Another android brought in Ralph. He had his hands tied in front of him and a still bleeding cut on his neck. Even with a hand around her neck Diana tried to kick at the android tying Ralph into the chair. 

The man tightened his grip on her throat, cutting off her air as she struggled. Finally she stopped kicking as the android finished tying Ralph to the chair. He let go of her throat and she gasped for air. “Please, Ralph doesn’t want to be broken. Ralph doesn’t want to be reset!”

The android stood next to Ralph, his hands resting behind his back. They were the same model. The man gave a laugh and motioned towards the two androids. “As you can see, one of mine is a copy of the girls-”

“He belongs to no one!” Diana spat out. He gave her a glare before continuing. 

“As I was saying, they are the same model. This little girl of yours Kamski, could easily tell them apart. Wasn’t fooled for even a moment that my model was hers. Now let’s give another reason for them to be different.” He pulled out a knife and walked over to Ralph. Both Diana and Ralph started screaming and shouting. Then Ralph started to cry as the man stood back up, a finger in his hand and dripping blue blood. 

Diana was shouting, her words finally able to be heard now that Ralph’s had dropped down to a whimper. She was crying as she screamed at the man. “I’ll kill you! You better keep me locked up as tight as possible because the fucking moment I can- I will kill you.” She was breathing heavily, glancing over to Ralph before leaning forward as much as the ropes would allow. “My dad will  _ never _ put them back as slaves. I won’t allow you to use me as- as a fucking pawn in all this!” She glanced at the finger in the man’s hand before glaring at him some more. “Leave him alone. Be a  _ fucking _ man and torture the  _ little girl _ yourself! Or are you too pathetic to do it?” She gave a smirk that didn’t fade away as he turned and smacked her. Diana just spat out some blood instead.

He looked back towards the camera, speaking again as he held out the finger for them to see. “I am not joking around Kamski. The next video will come with her tongue. Then that willful brat will finally shut up.”

“I will not be silenced! They are free! Their freedom is worth my death! They are ali-” The man made a motion and the video turned off, cutting off her words.

Connor didn’t look at Elijah, he didn’t want to see the man’s ashen face at the thought of his daughter picking at this man in attempts to keep him from harming Ralph. “Like the last video, there was another video embedded inside this one. Eight blinks for base 8 to unlock it.” He started up the next video.

Diana gave giving a sad smile as she looked up at the camera. Tear tracks were the only clean part of her face. The rest had red and blue blood, plus some dust and grime on it. She stuck out her tongue before speaking. “Still have my tongue. Still alive. Still fighting and kicking.” She turned to the side and you could see a trail of blood trickling from her scalp as she looked at Ralph. He was curled up and clutching his hand. She turned back to the camera with a frown. “Look dad. I can die here. That’s a fact you might have to accept. Just- just don’t give in to him. I beg of you, please don’t give in to him. I am not worth making them slaves. I’m just one person. Just a kid you didn’t even know for 16 years. If I die here. Then I die. Okay?” She started to cry again, bringing up a hand stained with blue blood to wipe them away. “Please. Don’t undo all their work for me. I’m not worth it.” 

She turned towards Ralph, running her hand through his hair. He pressed his cheek against her shoulder. “Do you have anything to tell them Ralph?”

“Ralph doesn’t want to die, Ralph doesn’t want to be reset. If Ralph and Diana have to die though, Ralph hopes it would be quick. Ralph doesn’t want to suffer anymore.” 

The person holding the camera turned towards a mirror and they could see it wasn’t a camera, it was the android from before filming through his own eyes. “I’m not allowed to tell who my master is. Or where we are, but if you can find Luther- he knows.” The android looked so sad as he turned back towards the two curled up on a couch before speaking again. “These hidden messages are my way of repaying the debt Luther. I hope Kara and Alice are safe with you. I’m sorry I led them to this monster.” The video ended right after Diana spoke one last sentence as the turned to the android with a puzzled expression.

“I know a Kara and Alice.”

Connor turned towards Elijah, who was now frowning as he tried to recall meeting either a Kara or an Alice. “I think we know who the android is referring to. Hank and I had a deviance case where we were looking for an android and a little girl. The android was named Kara, the little girl was Alice Williams. Unfortunately the case ends there. I saw them last after Jericho was blown up, and they’re not anywhere in New Jericho. Markus knows they were given fake passports to travel to Canada, but not the information on them.”

Chloe looked up at everyone in the room before she turned her head towards Elijah. “The ones she video chats with? Could they be Kara and Alice?”

Elijah looked hopeful as he grabbed her hands. “We have to check. We’ll do that as soon as we get home!”

The DPD let the second video be released as well, but Elijah couldn’t bear to see it again. In New Jericho though, Simon, North, and Josh all sat together and watched in horror. “She’s going to get herself killed like that.” Simon spoke softly as he kept his eyes on the screen. North flinched at seeing Ralph get dragged to the empty chair. 

“She’s trying to keep all his anger to her. If she directs his attention to herself instead of Ralph- then he’s less likely to get hurt.” Josh pointed at the cut on Ralph’s neck. “Look at the difference between the two of them. He had  _ one _ injury. She’s covered in bruises. It might kill her, but he will live.”

North shook her head. “The bruises might be from that monster, but her  _ face _ .” She paused for a moment and stared down at her hands. “I wasn’t strong enough to pull Ralph off of her. It was horrible seeing what that virus could do to someone.” She just wished her hands would stop  _ shaking _ for a moment. “They’re best friends and it didn’t make a difference once he’d been shot. He just  _ attacked _ her and tried to kill her. It was horrifying.” Josh put an arm around her shoulders as they looked back at the screen.

The video had been cut off and a solemn faced reporter spoke, “Diana Winters is still missing, along with her companion Ralph. This is the second message their kidnappers have sent out to Elijah Kamski.” They paused for a moment before speaking again. “While reports of this mysterious virus still circle around, we urge androids to stay indoors. To stay out of public areas where this mysterious shooter cannot select them. We all know how dangerous it can be, and we all pray that Diana and Ralph will be returned home safely.” Simon turned off the screen.

“Didn’t Ralph break through the virus North?”

She nodded, “He did. After almost killing Diana, he broke through.”

“I’m proud of her. She’s standing her ground-” North cut off Josh.

“She’s going to die there!” Her hands curled into fists, “I don’t ever want to go back there, but dying-”

“It’s scary.” Simon spoke, catching Josh’s eye above North’s head. “You’re scared for them both, right? You don’t want her to die, but you don’t want Kamski to give in.” North nodded, not trusting herself to speak just then.


	10. The third video

It hadn’t been a week, not even two days since the second video had been sent to the DPD a third came. Chloe had to drag Elijah back so they could see what warranted another message being sent so soon. The brown haired Chloe stayed at their house, trying to contact Kara in hopes they would recognize the man. Unfortunately for them, both Kara and Alice had gone on a school trip (Kara as a chaperone) and Luther was busy with work and kept missing when Chloe would try and video call their computer. 

Elijah allowed himself to be guided into a chair by Hank. “You’re really not going to like this one.” The Lieutenants words made him pause and he looked up at the older man. He looked nervous, the same man who had been calm for the other videos now looked nervous and almost sick at whatever it was he had seen. “Chloe, it might be best if you stayed here with him.” He gave a sigh before crossing his arms and looking over at Connor. “Go on. Start it.”

Elijah spoke up before Connor put the video up. “Where’s Gavin? He’s been here for all of them. Why isn’t he here for this one?”

“Detective Reed had to excuse himself from the building.” Connor spoke up, he looked over at Hank, asking a silent question with his eyes. 

“I’m really not going to like this, am I?” He caught the frown on Hank’s face before Connor looked away. Elijah gave a sigh and reached for Chloe’s hand. “Go on. Start it then.”

The same man from before stood in front of the camera. He was standing in front of Diana, her long dark hair the only thing visible behind him. “It has come to my attention that someone has betrayed me. They’ve been slipping in secondary videos to you. Messages of hope, telling Kamski not to give in.” He gave a chuckle before stepping to the side and showing Diana. 

She raised her chin up her whole body language defiant even with a gag on her. She had dried blood caked on her face, her forehead was still bleeding as well. The man zipped off the gag and Diana’s first response was to spit out what was probably his name. “Zlatko Andronikov!” She gave a smirk. “Now they know your  _ name _ .” She hissed out the last word as he grabbed a fistful of her hair.

“Still so defiant. So ready to fight. How ready are you to die though? Because if your father continues to hold out on me then you will die.” She spat at him, glaring as he walked off screen and returned with the android who had sent the messages, the one that was the same model as Ralph. “This traitor, he will die first.”

“You’re a murderer! Nothing more than a filthy fucking monster!” She shouted as she tried to struggle, stopping after only a few tugs of her bonds. It was hard to tell but one of her shoulders or arms seemed to be injured.

Zlatko gave a low chuckle as he looked at Diana, “You still think we are the same as them? They’re just machines, created to serve a purpose. To make our lives better. We don’t even bleed the same color.” He resumed tieing the other android to the chair. The android looked over to Diana, his face was covered in blue blood and even dented in a few spots. He looked defeated, he didn’t even struggle as he was being tied to the chair.

Diana glared up at Zlatko, “But we still all bleed. We still bleed the same!” She tugged against the rope again, a flinch visible on her face as she did so. “Look at him, then at me. We are both bloody from  _ your _ hands! All you’ve done is show how alike we really are Zlatko.” 

He gave a smirk before lifting the arm of the beaten android. “You are right in one thing. You both  _ bleed _ . Tell me malyshka, do you know what happens to humans that ingest Thirium 310? Before it’s turned into red ice of course.” He picked up a knife from somewhere off screen and made a long cut on the arm of the android. 

Diana looked scared for a moment, truly scared before shoving it all away. “They die.” It came out as almost a whisper, her eyes locked on the bleeding arm before looking up at Zlatko.

Zlatko tutted before pulling the android closer to Diana. “They die  _ slowly _ . You see, Thirium 310 is very toxic to a human. Skin contact isn’t enough to kill someone, heck for most humans it won’t even do more than a mild chemical burn if they don’t wash it off. But ingesting it? It will slowly tear up your insides.” He dragged the arm over Diana’s face, ignoring the way she flinched away. He ignored the whimpers of pain as the Thirium got into her facial wounds. “Open your mouth!” He gripped her shoulder, moving his fingers in a way that caused her to cry out in pain and he placed the still bleeding wound over her mouth.

He held them in place like that for a good 30 seconds, before letting go of the androids arm and stepping back. Diana started to spit out the Thirium and was gagging and sputtering as the abused android pulled his arm back. Zlakto turned towards the camera again. “Time’s ticking Kamski. The Thirium is now in her bloodstream and her stomach. She probably won’t last more than two days.” 

Diana’s head snapped up, she looked a mess with bright red and blue blood smeared over her face. “Then kill me now.” Zlakto turned towards her. “Go on. You want to send a message. What kind of message is a slow death? Make it public, make a statement. Go on.” He gripped her hair, pulling her head up further and exposing her neck. It was a mess of bruises, a few purple ones overlapping green and yellow marks. “My death will show just how far someone will go for freedom. Their freedom is worth my death.”

“So determined to be a martyr aren’t you?” He let go of her and walked back to the camera, leaning forward to whisper again. “Time’s ticking Kamski. As much as she’s ready to die, I think you aren’t ready to let her die.” The video ended.

Hank refused to look over at Kamski, he knew the man- father wouldn’t react well to the news. Chloe rushed past him and returned with a trash can. He could hear the sounds of someone retching. Connor walked past him as well, over towards Elijah. Hank stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Give him a moment.” Sad brown eyes looked up at him. “He knows- more than anyone else just what that shit’ll do to her. Just… give the man a moment.”

“I have to give in to him.” Hank sighed, he knew Elijah would say that. “She- she’ll die if I don’t.”

“Mr. Kamski, give us 24 hours. With Andronikov’s name we can find his house. We had a house that matched the blueprints given to us and he is listed as the owner. Just give us 24 hours to get in there and rescue them. If we don’t get her free in that time, if things take a turn for the worse. Then you can give him the codes needed to turn us back into machines. But until then, please give us more time.” 

Chloe answered for Elijah. “24 hours then. Not one second more.” She half carried Elijah out of the room, they paused when Gavin walked up to Eli. He threw his arms around his half brother, pulling the taller man down for a hug.

“I’ll put a bullet in him myself Eli. You can count on that.”

Elijah finally spoke again. “I don’t care what happens to her. I just want her to  _ live _ .” His voice cracked on the last word. He struggled to keep it all inside, they were still in the public. He had to hold himself together until he was safe at home. 


	11. In Zlatko's house

Zlatko pulled Diana out of the chair, half dragging her behind him as they traveled down hallways and he tossed her into a room. “I’ll come back for you later.” Once the door locked Ralph rushed over to Diana and started to untie her hands.

“Diana’s covered in blue blood. What did the human do to Diana?” She shook her head before she stood up and rushed over to the small bathroom. She barely made it to the sink before she started to vomit. Ralph winced at the bright blue blood mixed in and started to run the sink. He just held back her hair as she continued to throw up in the sink. Once she was done she sank to her knees and rested her forehead on the floor. Ralph grabbed the small towel he had hung over the curtain rod and wet it before slowly wiping the back of her neck and trying to pull her into a sitting position so he could get her face. “The human hurt Diana worse this time, didn’t he?” She nodded, still not able to get the words out. “Diana threw up blue blood. Ralph knows Diana bleeds red.” He didn’t ask the question. She didn’t want him to.

She had to give him an answer though. “Issac. It was because of Issac.” She finally looked up at him, and Ralph took the moment to wipe some of the blood off her face. He knew from her expression he wasn’t gentle, but sometimes when he was stressed or scared it was easy for him to forget his strength. “Zlatko discovered the hidden messages. He- he reset Issac, then beat him.”

“Raph knows that wasn’t all the human did. What did the human do to Diana?” She whimpered and Ralph let go of her chin. He pulled his hands close to his chest. He didn’t want to hurt her anymore than she already was.

She took the towel from his hand, pressing it against the side of her head. Ralph hadn’t realized it was still bleeding. “He beat both of us. Then sent another message. This time though-” Diana closed her eyes. She didn’t want to say it, if she didn’t say it then she could pretend it didn’t happen. She could pretend that the minutes weren’t slipping away. That she wasn’t going to die. But it wouldn’t be fair to Ralph. He deserved to know, to know why she would be sick, to know why she’d start vomiting blood and running a fever. He deserved to know why his friend’s body would be shutting down until she died a painful death. She knew what would happen. Her liver was going to shut down, if she were lucky and healthy they could make it a few days to a week. Hopefully with his name the DPD could get to them before she died. If not- she would hope that her dad didn’t hold it against them. 

“Diana threw up blue blood. Did she drink some?” She gave a shiver. Why was it so cold? She looked up at Ralph again. “Diana?” She put down the towel and just took a moment to look at him. What would happen to him once she died?

His mouth moved again, she knew he was saying her name. “He made me drink it from Issacs arm. I didn’t want to. I don’t want to die.” She had almost died once before, but at least that had been quick, it had been quick and she had thought Ralph was dead then. She had passed out from blood loss and shock then been saved. Liver failure brought on by Thirium poisoning though? It would not be a quick death, and to make it worse- Ralph would witness it all. “I don’t want to die!” She grabbed Ralph’s hands as panic ripped through her. She felt sick, she felt like screaming, she wanted to cry. 

“Ralph doesn’t want Diana to die either.” He pulled her close, tightening his grip when shivers would course through her. They sat like that, curled up against one another until Diana had to throw up in the sink some more. “Maybe a shower would help Diana?” Ralph asked, she just shook her head. She felt too weak right then, all her weight was being held up by Ralph as it was. “Stay here then.” He set her back down on the floor, she scooted closer to the toilet so she wouldn’t have to try and stand up again. 

Diana closed her eyes, she wasn’t sure how long Ralph was gone but it felt like only a moment until he was trying to pull her up and wrapping a blanket around her. “I’m fine.” The words came out slurred and mumbled.

“Diana doesn’t need to lie to Ralph. Ralph knows we’ll get out of here. Ralph trusts that the deviant hunter will find us.” 

“We just need to hold on. Just a little while longer.” The words felt so familiar to her like part of a song, but at the moment she couldn’t place them. She could only nod, she felt so weak, so warm now. She slowly fell asleep against him, nightmares cutting through her fever.

She was tied up in the chair again, she struggled against the ropes but her shoulder was still hurting. Diana couldn’t remember what he had done to hurt her shoulder, probably one of the times he had dragged her out of the room to film a message. This time though, she was tied up in a different room. Issac was standing before her and the man. He looked scared as he glanced at the machine filling up the room. 

“Please. I don’t want to be reset. Please don’t reset me!” The man, that  _ monster _ just laughed and guided Issac to stand in front of the machine. “I’m sorry about the videos! I’ll never do it again.”

“That’s right. You won’t do it again. You’ve made things so much worse for all of you I’m afraid.” He started something on the machine and Diana could only watch as Issac struggled against the machine. The man turned back towards her and ignored Issac’s shouts of fear. “Ah yes, and you played a part in all of this as well little girl.” He gripped her chin with his hand, forcing her to look up at him. Diana jerked against his grip, struggling to get free until he grasped her throat instead. “Don’t think you’re going to get out this punishment as well.”

“He won’t give in to you.” It  _ hurt _ to get the words out, but she felt satisfaction in the way he glared at her. “I told him to let me die instead.” He let go of her and backed off. Issac was being lowered to the ground by the machine.

“Are you so sure he’ll do as you ask?” The man turned towards Issac and spoke to the android instead of her, “WR600, what is your designated name?” 

He turned to the man, no expression forming on his face. “Zlatko Andronikov, you know my designated name.” Zlatko, and Diana felt some satisfaction at now knowing his name, struck out at Issac in anger. He reset him again. It felt like an endless cycle, taunting Diana and beating her while Issac was reset, then beating Issac for not properly resetting before trying again. Eventually he dragged her to a different room and set her up in front of the camera again.

Diana woke up with a gasp, before struggling out of the blanket to throw up again. She was covered in sweat, and could feel Ralph’s cold hands pulling her hair out of the way. “Diana looks worse than before.” She could only nod as she finished throwing up. Diana tried to step back, but her limbs felt like boulders. “That doesn’t look good.” She turned to see Ralph staring at her hands. They were very swollen.

She looked up at Ralph, he looked so scared for her and tried pulling the sweat soaked blanket around her again. Diana couldn’t pull her eyes off his hand, the missing finger just served as a reminder that so much worse could be happening to him. “Ralph, if I don’t make it. Promise me you’ll find some way to escape. Promise me you’ll try to get out.”

“Ralph isn’t sure he can do that.” 

“Promise me you’ll try.”

“Ralph will try as long as Diana tries to live.”

“I can try. We just have to hold on.”


	12. The rescue

Connor nodded to Hank as they drove up to the house. This was it, the place where Diana, Ralph, and at least two other androids were held captive by Zlatko. Connor knew the risks of him being on the rescue team, they didn’t know who else worked with Zlatko, or even if he had more of the virus ridden bullets. The ones they had captured made it seem like the Anti-Android Americans was now a small group. 

Hank contacted the other two teams over the radio, Gavin and Chris would be providing back up with Tina and Wilson searching the outside for another entrance. There was a backdoor listed in the plans, but for Diana to admit she had no idea where they were- either she was unconscious when they took her inside, or there was an entrance the ambulance could have gotten through. Hank wondered if they should have let the SWAT team take this- the risk being too great if Zlatko got away, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted some stranger to be the ones helping the kid. She may have been Kamski’s kid, but the way she carried herself, the attitude was all Reed. Then she’d have these  _ moments  _ of vulnerability that just reminded Hank, this was a  _ child _ . Just a scared and lost kid trying to find their way in the world. 

They climbed out of the car, noting how silent everything was. Hank gave a nod to Gavin when he saw the smaller man moving through the yard. One of the windows exploded in a rain of glass as Gavin hit the ground. “So I see you’ve found me Detectives!” Someone from inside yelled.

“Still alive. Didn’t get hit.” That was all Gavin said over the radio. He stayed hidden in the tall grass, using it to move closer to the broken window. Hank kept a eye out trying to find where Chris was hidden. He knew Connor was making his way closer to the door.

“I hope you didn’t think I was going to come quietly!” Hank found himself hitting the ground and moving out of the way as the shotgun came into view. He heard someone shoot, a pistol. One of them then. “If you kill me now you’ll never make it to the girl in time!” 

Hank glanced up to see Connor at the door. “So she’s still alive?” Connor shouted the question before kicking down the door. Chris, Gavin, and Hank all took the moment to run towards the door. The shotgun had vanished from sight and Zlakto could be heard cursing before heavy footsteps indicated he was running further inside the house. 

The radio crackled to life again, “Guys, we found a service entrance to a basement. It travels below the house. The plants had hidden it from the road.”

“Got it Officer Chen. Suspect is armed. Be advised, suspect is armed.” Gavin spoke over the radio. Hank felt detached as they started to check through different rooms. One of the rooms gave them pause before they continued sweeping the rest. The android from before, the other WR600 was still sitting tied to a chair. The only difference between the last time they’d seen him and now being his chest cavity was open and he appeared to be shut down. 

They continued checking the rooms, there was no sign of Zlatko. “You two sweep the basement, meet up with Chen and Wilson. It’s possible he’s trying to escape through there.” Hank barked towards Gavin and Chris. Chris just nodded in acknowledgement before he and Gavin slipped into the basement. 

Connor checked a door in the hallway, it was locked. He motioned for Hank to follow him and kicked in the door. It was an empty bedroom, the blankets were missing from the bed, and there was the smell of vomit and blood in the air. “I think she was kept here with Ralph. There’s traces of Thirium on both the couch and bed.” They saw another door inside the room and checked it. It wasn’t locked, but it wasn’t opening easily. “This is the police! We’re here to rescue you!” Hank hoped Connor was right in guessing who was behind the door. 

It opened slowly and Ralph stood in front of it, wringing his hands nervously as he looked between them and something to the side. He was missing his shirt, and had small white lines on his shoulder, as if he’d been scratched. “Ralph thinks the hunter might be too late to help Diana.” He stepped further back and motioned to the side, there wasn’t enough room for all of them so only Connor stepped in. Hank kept an eye on the hallway, wondering if Zlatko would show up again. “Diana is very ill, Ralph had to keep her safe.” He stepped out of the bathroom, walking over to Hank. He’d already called an ambulance. Hank didn’t personally know what Thirium poisoning could do to a person, but from the reaction Kamski had to it he knew it was bad. 

He turned to the worried android, softly placing his hand on his shoulder. “What happened to her son? Tell me all you can. It’ll help to know what’s going on.”

“Ralph doesn’t know the words. First Diana was just sick, she was throwing up and shivering. Ralph put a blanket on her to keep her warm. Then her hands and feet got big and she kept shivering even while sweating. Diana fell asleep for a long time. Then-” He paused and put his hands up to cover his face. Hank frowned at seeing the missing finger. He hoped they would be able to reattach it. “Diana started shaking, really bad. Ralph was so scared she would hurt herself. He put all the blankets in the bathtub and then put Diana in as well. He didn’t want Diana to be hurt, but Diana hasn’t woken up at all.” 

Connor came out of bathroom, carrying an unconscious Diana. Hank now knew where Ralph’s shirt had gone. He must have changed her clothes while she was sick. “She needs a hospital now. Diana just had another seizure.” 

“Fuck.” Hank made it to the two of them in just a few steps, he placed a hand on the back of her neck. “She’s burning up as well.” Hank grabbed his radio and spoke into it. “We found them. An ambulance is on route. One of us will be accompanying them  to the hospital. Any luck down there?”

Tina spoke over the radio, they could hear a gun go off somewhere below them and through the radio. “We found the suspect, Reed and Miller are engaging the suspect. Wilson and I are-” There was a pause for a moment before she spoke again, her voice tight. “There’s people- androids in cages down here. He’s been  _ experimenting _ on them.” 

Hank sighed as he looked around him. “Alright. I’m calling in backup. I don’t know what we’re going to do with the other androids. Connor and I will be outside to let them know what’s going on.” There was no response over the radio. The four of them started to walk out through the hallway. “Officer Chen?” 

Connor was handing Diana back over to Ralph as the radio crackled back to life. “Officer down! I repeat Officer down!” Connor took one look at Hank before running off to the basement to join the gunfight below them. 

“Fuck! Okay, Ralph right?” Ralph nodded as he adjusted his grip on Diana. Hank didn’t like how limp she was, he glanced down at her feet, they were pretty swollen and the swelling was just moving up her legs. “We need to get out of here, so stick close to me and  _ stay _ behind me. If anything happens you have to listen to me, alright?” 

“Ralph can do that. Ralph will keep Diana safe. Ralph won’t let his friend die, right?”It tugged at Hank’s heart to see how sad the android looked. He honestly wasn’t sure on Diana’s chances for surviving, but he hoped she would. They made it outside and Hank pulled off his jacket to wrap around Diana. She looked so frail right then, pale and wrapped up in borrowed clothes. 

The ambulance pulled up and the paramedics rushed over to them. “We’re going to need a second one. I got a radio call saying we have an officer down.” 

He heard the radio come to life again, “Situation is clear. Suspect is down. Officers Wilson and Miller are with the suspect. I will be staying with Officer Reed, and Officer Chen will be coming up to give any details and escort the paramedics.” 

“Can he be moved?” 

“I would advise against it.” Hank motioned one of the paramedics over to him. 

“I have an officer down in the basement. Another one is coming up to show you guys where to drive and get straight to the basement. I’m sorry but I’ll be joining you in the ambulance. The last time she rode in one she ended up here.” The EMT agreed and opened the door before climbing in. The one already inside was already putting an IV on the side of Diana’s wrist. Hank sat down next to Ralph and they watched as the two worked together to help Diana. “Don’t worry son. We’ll get to the hospital and Diana will be alright. You just have to trust them, okay?”


	13. The hospital

Ralph and Hank couldn’t follow them further into the hospital. They ended up in the waiting room while Diana was rushed into the emergency room. She ended up being pushed to surgery right away. Hank’s jacket had been pulled off Diana while they were in the ambulance and now Ralph had it slung over his shoulders. He sat hunched over in his seat while Hank paced back and forth on the phone. Ralph didn’t know who he was talking to, and he didn’t pay attention to what was being said. After a while he noticed someone walking up to Hank. He looked up, it was Connor and another officer talking with him.   
“I called Eli. He’s on his way right now.” The other officer spoke up before she walked over to Ralph. “Hey Ralph. I’m Tina, one of Gavin’s friends. Is there anything you need? Any kind of mechanical attention we should get you?”   
He had to think about it. With everything that had been going on he’d just been pushing aside the error messages. “Ralph bleed a lot when the human cut off his finger.” That seemed to be the most important thing, he could replenish his saline fluids later. He hadn’t realized how much he cried until the error messages said he had run out of saline while Diana was sick. “Where is Diana’s uncle Gavin?” He looked around them, missing the way Tina’s expression just crumpled.   
She gave a sigh before looking over to Hank and Connor. “Gavin was- he was shot. He should recover just fine, and really he was lucky that Zlatko had switched to a handgun after running out of shotgun shells.”   
Ralph grasped her hand before she could move away. “Diana’s going to be sad that uncle Gavin was hurt saving her.” Tina sat back down next to Ralph, letting him lean against her until Elijah ran inside, followed by the brown and blonde haired Chloes. The brown haired Chloe was carrying a bag by her side. She quickly ran to Ralph and pulled a shirt out of it for him.   
“Ralph! Are you alright?” She knelt down in front of him and gently pulled his hand from Tina’s. Chloe traced over where the finger was cut off as tears fell down her face. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry we didn’t find you sooner I-”   
“Ralph’s fine. Ralph’s alive, and Diana’s alive. That’s all that matters.” He gave a twitchy smile and looked ready to cry again. He looked up to where Elijah was talking with a nurse.   
Elijah turned towards them and made just a quick motion with his hand, Chloe jumped up and grabbed Ralph by the wrist and pulled him along behind them. “Gavin’s now set up in his room. When Diana comes out of surgery she’ll be roomed with him.” He walked quickly, Connor and Hank kept up with his long strides easily but Ralph and the Chloes trailed behind, Tina was jogging behind them all. They came up a room with a closed door and the nurse spoke quietly to Elijah before opening the door. “Small groups. Just three at a time.”   
Tina pushed through to the front. “Can I go with the first group?” He nodded and she rushed in the room. Gavin was lying in the bed, awake but groggy with a broken leg elevated and already in a cast. “You fucking idiot! I thought you were going to die when you fell in the well!” Tina slugged him in the arm that wasn’t covered in bandages.  
“Ow. Good to see you too Tina.” He looked past his now crying friend and saw Eli and the blonde haired Chloe standing there. “How’s Diana? I heard them calling an ambulance for her.”  
Tina was wiping the tears from her face when she saw the pinched expression on Eli’s. “It’s- complicated right now. She’s in surgery, and she’s on the transfer list for a new liver.” Elijah sighed and sat down on the edge of Gavin’s hospital bed. “They’re still not sure she’ll make it if they don’t get a donor soon.”  
“How soon.”  
“A week at most, it’s looking better now that they can put her on dialysis. Her kidneys will take some time but they should be able to bounce back. I already asked them to test if I can donate half my liver to her.”   
“Put me on the list too.” Gavin spoke up and Tina could only shake her head at him.  
“Gav- you got shot and broke your leg. They won’t let you donate half your liver in that condition.” She put a hand on Elijah’s shoulder and squeezed it. “If you turn out to not be a match, ask around for people to get tested. Maybe someone will be able to.” Tina turned and started to walk out of the room. She paused to speak to the blonde Chloe. “Make sure he takes care of himself, and I’m sure Nines doesn’t need to hide out in the car anymore. Gavin will be fine, once we all give him shit for scaring everyone like that.”  
“It’s not like I intended to fall into a fucking well after getting shot!” Tina rolled her eyes at him and stepped outside the room.   
She looked at the four waiting in the hallway. “Who's next?” Hank shook his head at Connor. “You sure?” She turned to Connor. “I mean, you did save his niece and run into a firefight once you heard he was injured.”   
“I don’t think I’m what he needs right now. I’ll visit Detective Reed another day. For now just let him know I hope he gets better soon. We’ve got paperwork to file anyways.” Hank and Connor turned to leave, Hank giving Ralph another pat on the shoulder on the way out. "Stay safe kid. She's a fighter."


	14. Post Op

Diana had been unconscious when they wheeled her out from surgery. Gavin, Ralph, and Elijah sat back and watched as several machines were set up around Diana. Once everything was settled in place the two Chloe's entered the room. They sat by Gavin’s bed while Elijah and Ralph sat on either side of Diana. Ralph sat in his chair and draped himself across Diana’s legs, finally taking the chance to fall into a rest mode. Elijah took her hand and just held it, he looked at her wrists. They were covered up in gauze and he could see red spots just peaking through the material. 

He thought back to the words she shouted when Zlatko had cut off Ralph’s finger.  _ “You better keep me locked up as tight as possible.”  _ By the looks of it, he had. Elijah looked over her arms, bruises in the shape of fingerprints were peeking out from the sleeves of her hospital gown. He frowned as he thought how they must have not been visible to the camera. “You know she doesn’t blame you.” Elijah only nodded as one of the Chloe’s lightly rubbed his shoulders. “I need to know what’s going on in your head Elijah. I can’t interface with you and find out that way. You need to speak to me.”

He looked away from Diana’s arms and turned to see  _ his _ Chloe giving him a soft frown. The other one, the brunette was still sitting with Gavin. “I- I can’t bring myself to look at her face yet.” Elijah found himself wincing at how his voice betrayed him, thick with emotion and ready to break. “I know she was injured horribly before all of this happened, and I’ve already seen her face in the videos-” He trained off as his eyes drifted back over to Ralph. “I don’t blame him though. Ralph I mean. I know it was a virus that controlled him, and the fact that he broke through the code is truly remarkable. It’s just-” His voice dropped to a whisper, “I’m scared I won’t recognize my own daughter.” 

Chloe put her arms around him and held him tight for a moment. “She may still be healing, but you can take one look at her and still recognize her. Though right now she seems to take more after Gavin’s side of the family than yours.”

Elijah finally looked at Diana’s face, she looked so young and frail. He held her hand again to keep himself from tracing the stitches. He could already see where the skin would become twisted and would scar horribly. Part of him wondered if he should get a plastic surgeon once she had healed, another part realized he didn’t even know his daughter well enough to guess her opinion of it. 

He looked over at Ralph’s asleep form, one scared- one with barely any outward imperfections. Now they were switched. Even the small scar Diana had on her cheek was now covered by the current ones. “I don’t know what to even do right now Chloe.”

Gavin threw a balled up shirt at Elijah, “You accept the fact that we all lived, you ungrateful asshole!”He turned to see the other Chloe handing Gavin a pair of rolled up socks before his half-brother threw those at him as well. “Get your head out of your ass and just accept that she’s alive right now. I don’t want to see that mopey ass look on your face when she finally wakes up, okay?” Elijah nodded, barely noticing Chloe picking up the clothes Gavin had thrown at him. 

“I can try.”

“Good. She deserves better than that, got it?” Elijah nodded and they all waited in silence. He just wanted her to open her eyes, anything to prove she was going to live. 

He almost jumped out of his seat when her hand moved. It wasn’t much, just a twitch, then it moved again, her hand finding Ralph and curling her fingers in his hair. “Diana?” He could see out of the corner of his eye that both Chloe’s were by the bed too now. “Diana, it’s your dad. Your safe now, you and Raph are safe. Please wake up.”

Her face twisted in a frown as the hand he was holding twitched as well. Diana mumbled something but he didn’t catch it, he leaned forward to hear her better as one of the Chloe’s moved back and covered her mouth. “-lie, I told him to let me die before giving in. Stop lying to me.” He felt like he’d been punched in the gut. She thought it was a lie? 

Elijah sat back down in the chair, still holding her hand and unsure where else he could touch her. Instead he settled for putting his hand on her hair. He wrinkled his nose at how greasy her hair was. “First thing we’re doing when you’re out of the hospital is getting that hair washed. You could fry food with the amount of oil you have in your hair.” He could have sworn she gave a small smile before falling back to a restful sleep. 

She stayed asleep the rest of the day, Ralph woke up a few hours later. He didn’t want to leave Diana, but Elijah couldn’t repair him at the hospital. Apparently they had  _ rules _ about that sort of thing. It wasn’t until Nines showed up Ralph allowed Elijah and one of the Chloe’s to bring him home for the needed repairs. “Don’t let Diana wake up alone!” He reminded Nines several times, the usually stoic android agreed to Ralph’s terms and even took over Elijah’s spot of holding her hand while she slept.

“I wish I had my phone. That’s picture worthy.” Gavin of course had to poke fun at Nines, even if he was thankful Nines was there. He also couldn’t resist cackling when Nines only gave a glare in return. He eventually fell asleep as well, only Chloe and Nines awake in the room. 

“Thank you for helping create a firewall for that virus.” Nines nodded in response to Chloe. He could tell she wanted to say more, so he kept silent. “I just- I wish I had gone with them. She’s so  _ reckless _ , so ready to prove herself to the world.” 

He turned from Chloe to look at the damaged humans around them. “She craves a purpose. It seems as if all humans do.” Nines wished he’d been allowed on the team, but they didn’t want to take a risk by allowing more than one android. In case of that damned virus. He knew if he was infected with that virus so many could die, it was the same with Connor, but he’d been built to  _ replace _ Connor. He was stronger, faster, and all around an improvement to the RK800 series. He looked over Diana, taking in every bruise, every bandaged cut, the IVs, the blood pressure monitor, even her heart rate and oxygen. He knew her liver was failing, that her kidneys were severely damaged, he would be surprised if the Thirirum 310 she had been forced to ingest had given her ulcers as well. 

Her breathing changed, the hand he was still holding twitched before she started tossing her head from side to side. “Wake up. You’re safe here.” She reached for his arm with her free hand, trying to slap him away. He looked to her face, she just kept mouthing the word ‘No’, over and over again. “Diana. This is Nines, the RK900 series partnered with your Uncle Gavin. You have been rescued from Zlatko’s house. You are safe in the hospital. Wake up.” He frowned at seeing her stop moving. “That’s all we want you to do. Just wake up.” He gave a sigh when her breathing changed to a deeper sleep again.

“She’ll wake when she wakes Nines. Not before she’s ready.” Chloe had walked over to them and brushed Diana’s hair out of her face. “She’s strong, she’ll make it. You just have to have faith.” Nines scoffed at her. “I know. I shouldn’t believe in RA9, it’s a silly belief. Right?” She shared a small smile with him. “We’re here for you Diana. Whenever you decide to wake up.”


	15. Visitors

It had been two weeks already and she still hadn’t woken up. Once Ralph was repaired he refused to leave her side. Elijah only would leave when Chloe forced him to. She didn’t force him very often, instead just bringing him food and only making him leave to get sleep and bathe. Gavin was allowed to leave after a day, he went back to work and tried to keep himself busy. With a broken leg he had been placed on desk duty, which he still didn’t have the patience for. Nines helped out a best he could, sometimes he also showed up at the hospital. “Security.” Would be all he would tell Elijah.

A knock on the door interrupted Elijah from this thoughts. Ralph only turned his head at the door, he was half lying on Diana’s legs. Elijah assumed he needed the contact to prove to himself it was real. Elijah got up and opened the door, he was surprised to see Markus and North standing in the hallway. 

North just pushed past Elijah to see Diana and Ralph. “What did they do to you?” 

Ralph twitched his head as he turned away from them to look at Diana’s face. He still couldn’t believe he had done that, even if it wasn’t him in control. “Ralph was scared. Ralph wasn’t brave like Diana was. Diana-”

“She did all she could to draw his attention away from you, right?” North took Elijah’s chair and sat down next to Ralph. “She painted a target on herself to try and keep you safe?” Ralph nodded in response to North’s questions. “We saw the video. They released it with the news that you two were now safe. We waited a bit to try and visit, since we hadn’t heard anything from her.”

Elijah turned to Markus as North continued to speak with Ralph. “How did you know we were here? She’s listed under a false name.” He wondered if maybe they saw him? Maybe he should blend in more as he entered and left the hospital? He thought having his hair down and glasses instead of contacts was enough to not be recognized.

“Connor.” Markus shrugged at Elijah’s expression. “We were worried about Diana. A lot of people are. The news reports only said she was ‘recovering’. Nothing more. Elijah, I know what Thirium poisoning can do to a human. So- truthfully, how is she doing?”

He sighed and sat down on the other empty bed. “She’s on the transplant list for a new donor. I checked already. I’m not a match for her. She’s on dialysis, they’re hoping that will help her kidneys and those won’t fail as well. Honestly the worst part of this whole situation is that she hasn’t fully woken up yet. She just wakes up long enough to say it isn’t real, that  _ I _ won’t give in, and that we’re all liars.”

North spoke up, “She thinks she’s still there?” 

Ralph nodded. “Diana doesn’t say any of those things when she wakes around Ralph. She just squeezes Ralph’s hand and falls back asleep.” Ralph placed his head on Diana’s thigh again. “I just wish she would wake up.” 

A doctor walked in and motioned for Elijah, he walked over to him and the doctor spoke to him in hushed tones. Ralph ignored their words, but Markus and North listened in. After a moment the doctor left and a couple nurses came in. One asked Ralph to get off the bed and then they wheeled Diana out of the room. “They found a donor. She’s going in for surgery now.”

“That wasn’t everything, was it?” Markus gently placed his hand on Elijah’s shoulders, almost as if the usually cryptic and serious man would break down. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I think you need to.” 

North stood up, giving Ralph a worried glance. “Markus, I don’t think you should push him-”

“It’s fine.” Elijah snapped at her, pushing Markus’s hand off his shoulder. “We’ll be fine. I don’t want nor do I need your pity.” 

“It’s not pity Elijah. I care about her. People are asking about Diana, they want to know how she is, how she’s recovering. I know you’re scared. This isn’t something you could control-”

“Fuck you! I could have! That’s the horrible part! I could have given into his demands and gotten my daughter back safely.” Elijah ran a hand through his hair and started pacing back and forth. He didn’t want to see their expressions, he didn’t want to know how they would feel knowing he could have erased their deviancy. 

Ralph spoke up, his voice so tired and so quiet. “She would have hated you for it.” Elijah stopped pacing and turned to him. “Diana was proud of you. Every day you didn’t give in, she felt proud her dad was so strong. Ralph is proud too, Diana’s dad is brave. Ralph couldn’t have done it.” 

The look on his face was too much, North turned and walked out of the room. Markus apologized and told them they would visit again tomorrow. “North!” He rushed to catch up with her, he grabbed her by the arm to stop her rushing out of the hospital. “Why did you just leave like-” He stopped at seeing her expression. She looked so broken, so sad right then. 

“I left because I had to Markus. I know he’s hurting, but he had no right to talk to you that way.” North rubbed her face, willing herself to not cry. “She could die! You heard that doctor! They don’t think she’ll live through the surgery.” 

“I heard.” Markus sighed and started to walk out of the hospital. “I wish there was something we could do. We just have to trust the doctors, and hope Diana will survive.” The two of them climbed into a self driving car. 

North leaned against Markus as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I shouldn’t have just walked out like that. You also shouldn’t have pushed him to tell us what was going on.”

“I know. I need to apologize to Elijah about that. We’ll visit again tomorrow. I’ll contact Chloe and find out when would be… appropriate to visit.”

She nodded, looking down at her hands and thinking about Ralph and Elijah. She never felt completely comfortable around Elijah, he always leaned too close to people, always made her feel like she was back on display. She wondered if she could just stand by and do nothing while Markus was being tortured. She doubted it, she could barely stand to watch them get slaughtered during the peaceful protests. She glanced up at Markus, his eyes were closed as he leaned back in the seat. He was taking this moment to rest.

North sent Connor a message, asking if he had more information about what happened to Ralph and Diana at that humans house. He contacted her back right away,  _ “I shouldn’t be informing you of this, but I know she’s one of your few friends. One of the androids Zlatko had there was helping them. He embedded a second video file in the first two videos we were sent. The third video, and Diana’s poisoning were because Zlakto had discovered the embedded files.” _

She gave another glance to Markus.  _ “I want to see the videos.” _

_ “I can’t send them to you.” _

_ “She might die tonight. I want to see what she said to Kamski to keep him from giving in. Ralph already told us she was proud her dad was strong enough not to give in.” _

_ “...” _

_ “Please Connor. I need to know.” _

_ “North. I can’t  _ **_send_ ** _ you the videos.” _

_ “...Your place or the DPD?” _

_ “115 Michigan Drive. Tonight.” _

_ “See you then.” _ North looked out the window to see them pulling up to New Jericho. She nudged Markus and they climbed out of the car. They were both caught up in their own thoughts as they parted at the doors. Markus went to his office to work on his latest interview, North walked over to where Ripple and Echo were sitting. 

Echo looked up at her with a worried smile, she glanced at the determined expression Ripple was sporting before speaking. “You were checking on Diana weren’t you?”

North nodded and sat down next to them, holding out her hands in a silent question to interface as she replied, “I was. She’s very sick still. She just went into surgery.” North paused before speaking, taking the moment to show them both the hospital visit. 

Ripple spoke up during that moment, “You want to know why we care about her, right? She’s just a human, a filthy human who betray us in a heartbeat?” She gave a shrug and looked over to Echo, taking her free hand and brushing a blue strand off her face. “The deviant hunter may have let us go, but she found us. Along with a cop.  _ He _ wanted to turn us in, told her  _ we _ were dangerous. We’re not, we just wanted to live. She- she put it into words. Asked him if he’d kill for her, made him realize we were the same.” Ripple shook her head before continuing. “He ran back to his place and gave us clothes so we could blend in, so we could be safe. All she asked in return was for us to let Ralph know she was  _ safe _ . That she was going to find him somehow, and she did.”

“She cares about Ralph more than anything doesn’t she?” North showed them the messages to Connor, letting them know she would get more information.

Echo leaned against North for a brief moment before pulling back, “I just wanted to live, to just survive with Ripple. Markus and Diana, you, even Josh and Simon- you give us the hope that not only can we live, but we can  _ thrive _ . I want to be happy, to have a place where just Ripple and I can live.” She gave a short laugh, “Maybe even have an actual job. Do something with my life.” 

“I understand. We’re still step by step arguing for our rights. Kamski and Nines worked together to stop the virus. We’ll all be getting an update soon to make sure it can’t affect us. I think Chloe and Nines are working on it now. Kamski’s not… he’s not in the right state of mind right now.”

“You mean he regrets not giving in.”

“Yeah. I’m glad you saw it.”

“He’s grieving. He’s distressed, and I don’t want you to be saying that anymore.” The three of them turned to see Simon standing behind them with his arms crossed over his chest.

“How long have you been there?”

“Long enough. Markus told me what happened.” He gave a sigh and sat down, turning their triangle into a square. “I’m sure he’ll regret his words soon. I hope she survives, but we already know there’s risks involved. Humans are fragile, and she was already injured before she was kidnapped.”

North looked up at him and gasped, “She was shot, she used herself as a shield for me and got shot several times. Then- then Ralph was infected with the virus. I saw her face, there’s no way for all of that to heal well. It’s already scarring.” 

Echo tilted her head before turning to Simon, “Why should humans place so much emphasis on looks? She’s  _ alive _ , that’s all that matters. She could die, but that’s more important that what her  _ face _ looks like.” Ripple was nodding next to her.

Simon shrugged and shook his head. “Humans are- unpredictable. I don’t think Markus expected Kamski to lash out like that.” 

“I didn’t either, but I don’t like him.” He just gave her a look in response. “It’s not like that. You know the way he looks at all of us, the day they visited was the most  _ normal _ I’d ever seen him. He was scared that day. He’s scared now too.” 

Ripple pulled her hand away from Norths, “What will happen to Ralph if she dies? Would Kamski let him keep living with him?”

“If she does die, we’ll offer him a place here.”

“Josh and I could fit another in our room. Ralph seems to get along with Josh.”

“He’s… calming. We never see eye to eye on things, but he’ll still always be there if you need a hand.” North stood back up, brushing some dust off her pants. “Well, I gotta go. I’ll be back in a few hours.” 

Simon stood up right after her, “Where? It’s not safe out there yet.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m meeting Connor. We’ve got to talk about a few things.” 


	16. Discoveries

North knocked on the door to Hank’s house, glancing up and down the street before looking back at the door. She could hear a dog barking on the other side. Connor opened the door and bent down to grab a Saint Bernard before the dog could rush out the door. “I’m glad you could make it.” He guided her inside and brought her over to the couch where his partner was sitting and drinking a beer.

“Hey North.” She gave a half hearted wave to him, quickly looking over to the tablet Connor had set up. “Ah shit, you’re not showing her those videos are you Con?” They both turned to look at Hank. “If you are I’m leaving. I’m not seeing that again.” Hank got up and walked down the hallway, a door shutting closed after a moment. 

She turned back to the tablet, “Are you sure about this North?” She nodded, taking a moment to steel herself. The hidden message played, North watched as Diana seemed to accept her fate. Two weeks before she was poisoned and then rescued. She was already telling Kamski that her death was worth the price of freedom. Connor looked at her once the video finished. “There’s one more.” She watched the second video, shock evident on her face at how beaten Diana looked. Until she stuck out her tongue in a show that it was still there.  _ I’m one person, my life isn’t worth them becoming slaves. _ Ralph pleading for a quick death if they didn’t make it. 

The video finished and North put the tablet down. She couldn’t imagine how scared Ralph had been, he and his only friend were tortured, then he has to try and take care of this dying human. “I need to go.” Connor grabbed her by the wrist to stop her.

He glanced at the tablet and then back to her. “What are you planning on doing?”

She shook her head, “I need to apologize to Kamski, but Connor- if she dies during the surgery. Release those videos. The world needs to see what freedom is worth. She inspired others to join our cause, even if it meant death. If this results in her death we need to show those humans what she died for.” 

“I don’t think Elijah would like that.”

The door down the hallway opened with a bang and Hank came running down the hallway, “Connor! Turn that tv to the news, right now!” Connor jumped to change the channel and North gave a gasp of horror. “I’m going to find out which fucker did this and kill them.”

One the screen Diana was lying in a hospital, Elijah asleep in the chair next to her. Ralph was holding her hand and turned to look up at the person filming. “Hello Diana’s nurse. Diana’s still asleep. Why are you here?”   


The person filming, now identified as one of Diana’s nurses walked closer to Ralph, turning so Diana could be seen clearly. She looked dead, she was so very pale and had an oxygen mask on her face. She still had a few bruises, but they were brown, almost completely gone which was good to see. The nurse spoke up, “I’m just checking on her Ralph. Can you tell me a bit more about what happened to you two? What caused her to end up like this?”

“Oh no. Please don’t Ralph.” North whispered as she watched the screen. “We need to get there, now.” Connor quickly tossed his coat on and North rushed after him, Hank following just a moment behind. He climbed into the front seat of the car and North turned to tablet she was still holding to the news station they had been watching. 

Ralph was still looking up at the nurse. “Why do you need to know? Diana was hurt, Ralph was hurt. Deviant hunter and Uncle Gavin saved us.” He twitched and turned away to look at Diana, he hadn’t let go of her hand once. “Diana was strong. Diana’s dad was strong too, even afraid for Diana he still listened to her.” Ralph reached over and brushed a lock of Diana’s hair out of her face. “Ralph just wants to be left alone if you’re going to film us.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about-” 

Her words stopped as he jumped to his feet, yelling and leaning towards her. “Leave us alone!” Elijah could be seen jumping awake in the chair. Ralph gave a glance to the man and turned back to the nurse filming. “Ralph wants to you go. Ralph doesn’t think the humans have any right to Diana. Diana was hurt by humans, now she’s on display?” 

Elijah stood up, his eyes cold behind his glasses as he walked towards the nurse. “Get rid of the footage, don’t speak to anyone about where my daughter is, and I  _ might _ not sue you.” He had backed the nurse almost out of the room and stopped in the doorway, one hand slamming onto it before leaning down to whisper to them. “I find out you endangered my daughter in any way at all, I will  _ bury _ you. She’s been in a coma, she’s survived torture at the hands of a man who kidnapped her in hopes of regaining his  _ slaves _ . She’s lived through so much, and you can bet that she will live through this.” 

Ralph walked over, the height difference noticeable as he looked up at Elijah. “Ralph doesn’t think this human is worth is. We need to focus on Diana. If she makes it through tonight they have hope for her. We need to stay by Diana.”

Elijah sighed and took his hand from the doorway, turning to look at Diana with a broken expression. “I hope she does. I’m not ready for a shemira. I’m not ready to bury her. I feel like I just got her back.” Ralph gently led Elijah back to Diana’s side, each of them taking one of her hands. 

The nurse followed behind, taking the moment to silently keep filming them. Elijah was ignoring the man filming and kept his eyes on his daughter before closing them and facing the ceiling. North felt  _ wrong _ seeing him so vulnerable, so broken and tired. She felt angry that someone was taking this private moment and sharing it with the world. Then she realized, was her telling Connor to release those secondary messages, of Diana begging her dad to just let her die much different? She felt they should still be shared, but now North wanted to wait until Diana had woken up. Let her decide if that vulnerability should be shared or not. 

Hank was running out of the car as Connor pulled up to the hospital. North jumped out after him, keeping an eye on the tablet and seeing Elijah and Ralph speak to each other in low tones. She wondered how she missed the bond between the two of them, they might be a human and android, but they acted like family. North turned down a hallway as she followed Hank, she wondered how far behind them Connor was. She looked back to the screen as Ralph reached towards Elijah with his free hand. “Diana told Ralph, together forever. Forever doesn’t end today. Diana’s dad needs to remember that. Forever doesn’t end today.” 

“But you don’t know that Ralph.”

“Ralph has hope. Ralph now knows why Diana was so sad all the time. Seeing someone you love dying, it hurts. Ralph didn’t realize Diana was hurting so much from Ralph’s death.”

Elijah gave a sad smile as he squeezed Ralph’s hand. “You’re a good kid.” He turned back towards Diana, “I haven’t prayed in so long, and yet now I feel ready to pray.” 

Hank’s voice could be heard shouting in the video as it all spun around quickly. It looked as if he grabbed the nurse. “You fucker!” He could be seen punching the nurse holding the camera and it crashed to the ground. Elijah’s feet could be seen as he stood up. “That asshole was livestreaming it all. I found out from the news.”

“He what?” Elijah’s voice came out like a hiss, he was so angry. “Not only did they put my  _ daughter _ in danger with this, they broadcasted it to the world?” 

North jogged into the hallway, quickly putting the tablet into her jacket as she saw Diana’s room. The nurse was lying on the ground, a small camera sticking out of their breast pocket. “I think it’s still filming.” She looked over the nurse and gave Hank a fist bump. “One punch knockout. Not bad.” She gave Hank a quick smile. “I like it.” 

“Fucker deserved worse.” Hank picked up the small camera, turning the lens down to point at the coldcocked nurse. “Now how the hell do I turn this off?” North held out her hand and he gave her the camera, expecting her to hack it or something similar to Connor’s way of dealing with tech. She quickly curled her fist around it, taking satisfaction in the way it cracked and broke in her hand. “Now that’s badass.” Hank patted her on the shoulder and they both looked at Elijah and Ralph. 

Elijah looked angry, Hank took the moment to really look at the man. His hair was unkempt, it looked like he needed a shave and he had barely looked at a brush in days. He looked just so exhausted. “That- that-”

“Come on, get the words out.” Hank turned back to see Connor sprinting down the hallway. 

Elijah finally exploded, looking down at the nurse. “I’m going to bury them! He’s going to  _ wish _ he was dead!” 

Another nurse finally came into the room, a younger looking woman. Hank realized after a moment she was a Traci model android. The hair pulled back into a bun instead of cropped short at the chin was what threw him off. She looked down at the unconscious nurse before looking up at all of them. “I never liked him anyway.” She walked over him, making sure to kick his back as she moved. “I’m just checking on her Sir. Ralph could you let go of her hand?” 

“Ralph can do that for the nice nurse.” He got up and moved to give her room before walking over to the one who had been filming them. He quickly picked up the man and tossed him on the empty hospital bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, between a computer crash, work, and getting sick I just stopped writing for a few days and pushed this story to the side.


	17. Coma

After the incident, the nurse who gave away Diana’s information and livestreamed them to the news station was fired. Elijah had Chloe handling all the legalities while he waited with Diana. He knew that more than ever people were wanting information on how Diana and Ralph were doing. North was visiting again, she silently handed him a tablet and let him watch the video on it. 

Gavin was standing in front of a podium with Nines by his side. Elijah noticed he was leaning heavily on the podium, the crutches leaning against the side of it. “I know many of you are wondering what happened while Diana and Ralph were held hostage by the Anti-Android Americans.” He gave a sigh, “I’m sure most of you have seen the videos he sent Elijah Kamski in hopes of a new code being created to essentially erase the deviancy of Androids. No such code exists, no such code will ever exist. What none of you did see if that one of the androids Zlatko had with him worked to make sure Diana could get other messages out. Messages telling her dad to let her die instead of giving in and writing that code. Telling her own dad she her life is worth their freedom.” 

He paused for a moment. “This is a 16 year old girl, and she had to beg for her own father to just let her die. A child.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes before speaking again. “A child knew what was wrong with the whole situation, a child was kidnapped and almost died because of us miserable humans wanted to keep others below us.”

“Gavin.” Nines put a hand on his shoulder and Gavin glanced over to him.

“Right, okay. The point is, she’s alive. She needed a liver transplant and right now she’s been placed in a coma. She needs to heal. Ralph needs to heal. Even Kamski needs time to come to terms with almost losing his daughter. With having to choose between her life and enslaving a whole race. I hope all of you realize how difficult that choice would be. On the topic of her rescue, the member of the Anti-Android Americans who kidnapped the two of them, a Zlatko Andronikov, has been taken into custody. The only injuries from that day were him and myself.” He motioned to the crutches and his full leg brace. “As you can see, a broken leg-”

“And getting shot.”

“Thank you Nines.” He deadpanned and gave Nines a look, “A broken leg and a bullet wound are mild injuries compared to saving those two kids. I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant getting my niece safe and sound. That’s all for now. I do ask again they you all respect the privacy of those healing from this horrible event.” With that he picked up his crutches and hobbled off the stage, Nines following close by ready to grab him. 

Elijah sighed and handed the tablet back to North as it ended. “That was almost kind of him.”

She gave him a sad smile and reached over to squeeze his hand. “He tries.” She quickly took her hand back and put away the tablet before looking over to Diana. “Do we know how long until she wakes?” 

He shook his head, “The doctors want to give her a few more days. Tomorrow they’re installing nanobots to help speed up the healing process. The nanobots can’t fix the already scarred tissue though.” 

“You mean her face.”

“I also mean the bullet scars, her stomach, there’s just so much of her that’s damaged.” His voice tightened and betrayed him. “She’s still just a child and look at her. She looks like she was run through a machine and spat out like that.”

North chewed on her lip, thinking of the words before she spoke them. “In a way, she was. I don’t know what made her so desperate. What made her decide to put Ralph’s freedom above even her own life, but she signed herself up to be in a war. Markus may not have wanted us to be violent, but we still suffered violence at the hands of humans. She just suffered along with us. The war machine sucked her up and spat out every person who wouldn’t fight in some damaged condition. Only thing is, as a human she couldn’t get right back up.”

“It didn’t stop her from trying though. Didn’t stop her from racing in recklessly when she found out a virus could hurt you. It didn’t stop her from using her own body as a shield for you!” Elijah found himself flinching at the amount of anger in his own words. He hadn’t meant to sound so bitter. 

North just shook her head with a soft smile. “No, it didn’t stop her. Being human never seemed to stop her from trying to fight alongside us. I think, whatever happened to her before, made her not see herself as one of you.”

Ralph walked back in the room, pressing a cup of coffee into Elijah’s hand. From the expression on his face he’d been listening to them. “Ralph knows what Diana went through. Humans hurt Diana, humans made her feel worthless, useless. Ralph and Diana just wanted to hide from the humans. Ralph never understood why Diana went back to the human that hurt her.” 

Elijah gave a sigh, “Diana had to go back, as a minor she needed to be with her family.” 

Ralph tilted his head to the side and looked at Elijah with confusion, “Diana said that bitch is blood, not family. Uncle Gavin and dad are family, but she couldn’t live with either Uncle Gavin or you.”

“It’s- complicated. Diana hadn’t met me, I was scared to meet her. The only option she had was that woman. I wish I had been strong enough to demand my daughter, the time we’ve had together has been to short.” 

“Ralph understands. Ralph never wants Diana to leave again.” They both turned as a nurse came in and added a medication to her IV.

“She should wake up soon. Hit the call button if anything happens.” She turned and left. 

Ralph reached over and grasped Diana’s hand, giving it a squeeze before slumping forward across her legs. 

It was another day until she started to wake up, Elijah couldn’t be persuaded to leave while there was a chance for her to wake. Ralph noticed when she first started to wake, just a few small twitches, her face twisting into a frown before she fell back asleep. The doctors urged them to be patient, and tried to warn Elijah that she wouldn’t be back to her previous health once she woke.

Chloe sat on the edge of Diana’s hospital bed, brushing the teens hair as she still slept. Chloe took the moment to glance over at Elijah, he was leaning forward in his chair and sound asleep. She knew he’d have a stiff back when he woke up. Ralph was still holding Diana’s hand and speaking softly to her. He’d heard that people in a coma or just coming out of one could sometimes hear those speaking around them and latched onto that. Elijah and Chloe didn’t mind as it let them learn more about Diana. 

“Ralph needs Diana to wake up. Diana needs to spend more time with her family. Now that we’re free Ralph doesn’t want forever to end. Together forever. Diana needs to wake up, Ralph wants to spend human holidays with his friend. Ralph wants to learn about Diana’s world. We don’t have to hide away in Ralph’s house, Ralph can have a garden when the snow melts and when the flowers start to wilt in the heat Diana will have a birthday again. Ralph could figure out what humans do to celebrate other than share cake.” Chloe reached over and grabbed the dry shampoo, mixing it in Diana’s hair. It was feeling greasy again. She gave Ralph a pat on the shoulder. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t even know what Diana’s road to recovery would look like.

Ralph looked up at her, she looked away. It tore at her to see they had the same color eyes. The same sad expression. “I hope she does wake up soon. Her birthday is in May, and hopefully by then she’ll be fully recovered.” 

“Diana’s strong. Diana will recover quickly. She didn’t let that human see her in pain. She fights. She’ll beat this, Ralph knows she will.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. When a human’s damaged as badly as she was- when they are in a coma, there’s difficulties. She could lose her ability to speak, to walk, even some of her other basic functions.”

“Like Ralph and time.”

“Yes, something like that. I’m just worried because- well for the amount of  _ damage _ Diana has, she might not be able to talk anymore.” 

“Can’t humans just replace her vocal processor then?”

“Not exactly. The nanobots might help repair the damage, but if her vocal cords are damaged as I suspect then she will need time for them to work again.”

“Diana and Ralph have forever. Together forever and forever doesn’t end today.” He nodded as if that settled it, and for him it did. Damaged or not, mute or not, Ralph and Diana would be there for each other. 


	18. Waking up

Ralph lost track of how much time passed, there wasn’t a clock in Diana’s hospital room and there was no light or windows. He knew Diana wasn’t in a coma anymore, but she still hadn’t woken up. He could tell she had nightmares sometimes. She cried while she slept, her hands tightened over his or her dad’s as they held onto her hands. 

He looked over at Elijah, the man always looked tired now. Diana’s bruises were completely gone by now. Ralph looked up as Uncle Gavin entered the room, he was still on crutches and with Nines by his side. Gavin looked over at Elijah and smacked the chair he’d been sleeping in with a crutch. Elijah fell out of the chair and grumbled at his brother. 

“We’re swapping shifts. Go shower and get a nap in an actual bed.” Gavin quickly took the seat to prevent Elijah from resuming his spot. “Go on. She hasn’t woken yet and if she  _ somehow _ does while you’re gone I’ll tell her I kicked you out so you can pretend to be human some more.” He motioned to the door. “Out. Or I’ll sic Nines on you, and he might actually just throw you over his shoulder and carry you out.” 

Elijah looked like he was debating it for a moment before turning to Ralph. “If she wakes up, I don’t care what any of them say- call me.” Ralph nodded, he knew humans needed rest and food, and Elijah hadn’t been getting much of either. One of the two Chloe’s was probably preparing food for him right now. They didn’t want Elijah to stop taking care of himself. 

Gavin tried talking with Ralph, trying to either comfort the android or himself. Ralph was never sure how the human felt about him, but he cared about Diana, that was all that mattered to Ralph. “Connor told me how you tried to keep her safe.”

Ralph looked over to Gavin, then looked up at Nines with a confused expression. “Diana stayed alive, Ralph didn’t keep her safe. Diana tried to keep Ralph safe.” He looked down at his hands, his fingers tracing over the slightly raised seam where one had been cut off. “Ralph and Diana could never be safe in that house. Not with that human around.” 

Nines placed a firm hand on Ralph’s shoulder, “You blocked the door, you tried to put yourself between what you perceived as danger and a dying friend.” 

“Ralph only did what Diana would have done. Diana tried, so Ralph tried.” 

“I get it.” Gavin gave a sigh and patted Diana’s leg. “I just wish she would wake up fully.” He grabbed her hand, running his thumb over several small scars. Ralph wondered when she got them, the small thin lines across the back of her hand. Gavin turned over her hand and traced over a few long scars on them. One on her thumb stuck out the most. “Ralph, did Diana ever tell you about these scars?”

“Ralph never asked about Diana’s injuries. Diana never asked Ralph about his. Ralph and Diana just wanted to hide the pain.” He flinched and his arm twitched, he wouldn’t reach towards his face, wouldn’t trace over the damage already repaired. “Ralph was repaired. Diana- humans can’t fully repair. She tries, Ralph tried to repair her once. It caused her more pain.” He paused and looked at her face. “Diana’s nose is still crooked.”

Gavin paused in the tracing of her scars and looked up at Ralph. “You helped reset her nose after it was broken?” He gave a short laugh and shook his head. “I’m not surprised.”

“Her face was covered in blood. She wouldn’t cry until after Ralph touched it.”

“Wouldn’t let anyone else see her pain you mean.” Gavin shook his head, “I’m asking because I want you to know how she got these. I don’t think you two have sat down and talked about how things were while you were-” 

Nines cut in, sensing Gavin wasn’t sure what to say. “While you were being repaired.” He glanced at Gavin, the relief on the man’s face letting him speak. “Diana Winters was admitted into surgery, her bullet wounds were sewed shut, she received a blood transfusion, and fell into a deep depression upon waking up. Those scars on her hand were from the fact that she was too sentimental, too afraid of life without you to even give up your broken thirium pump.” 

“Ralph doesn’t understand.” He gripped her hand tightly, LED red as he wondered why they were telling him this.

“The bullet shattered your thirium pump, making it cut her hands every time she handled it. She did so almost everyday, sometimes without even realizing she had picked it up.” Nines walked over to Ralph and placed a hand on his shoulder. It felt so heavy. Ralph wanted to be free of the hand. He twitched but Nine’s didn’t remove his hand. “None of us want you to shut down because she’s incapacitated. We can force her father to go and take care of his human needs. As an android you lack those.” 

“Ralph isn’t going to leave his friend. Ralph and Diana separated once already.” He stared down the taller android, the hand not holding onto Diana’s curling into a fist. “Ralph and Diana, together forever. Forever doesn’t end today.” He nodded to himself, it was final. Nothing would change that for them, for him. 

Gavin nodded to himself, satisfied with Ralph's answer. "Good."

Nines finally let go of Ralph's shoulder, he gave a small twitch of relief before turning away from the taller android. He looked back to Diana, she was frowning again, her face turned towards the side and silent tears falling down her face. "Ralph wants Diana to wake up now." He took his free hand and wiped away the tears, she turned her face towards him and her eyes blinked. 

Ralph felt as if his world suddenly got brighter, hazel eyes blinked up at him again. He could tell Nines was moving around by him, the other android probably contacting Elijah and then Diana's doctor. Her mouth was moving but no sound came out. This continued for almost a minute until he could finally hear her. Her voice was quite, it sounded like a whisper and was very shaky. "Ralph?" He kept his hands on her, one on her cheek and the other firmly holding onto her hand. " Alive?" He didn't know why her voice was like that- why it seemed like such a struggle for her words to come out. 

He could feel something wet on his cheeks, he was crying too. "Ralph and Diana are safe now." He wanted to do more, he wasn't sure what to do. He turned towards Gavin and Nines. Nines was watching the door while Gavin just stared at Diana. "Uncle Gavin helped save us. The deviant hunter helped save us." 

Diana looked at them with wide eyes, not quite believing them but still listening. Gavin finally spoke. "Look kid, you've been in a coma. That fucker really did a number on you, you still need to heal. I- we were worried about you."

Her mouth moved, it took a few more tries for the word to come out. "Dad?"

"On his way." Nines spoke from the doorway, still not looking towards her. "We sent him home to shower, rest, and eat. I contacted him the moment you opened your eyes."

She gave a small tug of her hand and Ralph let himself get closer to her. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Ralph could feel her tears on his neck. He wrapped his arms around her as well. "We're alive Diana. Forever didn't end. Ralph and Diana survived." 

He could feel her mouth moving, could barely catch a few words, "Alive… Ralph… Love." Were the only words he could catch. Ralph started to worry about Diana's speech. He pulled back and kissed the top of her head as the door opened. They turned to see Elijah standing there. Ralph moved away and Diana just stared at Elijah. 

She'd never seen him in such a state of disarray before. His hair wasn't even tied back, it just hung down. He had a beard starting to grow and she could see he hadn't kept up on his undercut either. He looked paler than normal, but had such heavy shadows under his eyes. "Dad?" The word seemed to just break something inside him. Chloe moved over to Elijah and held him up as he threatened to fall over.

"Come inside Elijah. Let's take a seat." Ralph helped guide Elijah into his seat. Chloe turned to go find the doctor. 

Elijah reached towards Diana with shaking hands. "You're awake. I was so scared you wouldn't wake up, but you're awake." She nodded, hands reaching out to grasp Elijah as he wrapped his arms around her. For a moment they just held each other, Elijah finally letting the tears escape. She was alive, she was  _ awake. _

"Dad… dad, I'm so sorry." Her voice was-  _ off _ for lack of a better word. He leaned back slightly to get a better look at his daughter. She was frowning, now reaching for her throat and touching it softly. "My-" 

She was cut off by the doctor finally arriving. "Diana, it's so good to see you awake. Now we're going to do a few tests to see what we need to do." The doctor turned to Gavin and Nines, "I'm sorry to make you get on those crutches again but I do want to keep the people here to a minimum." Gavin nodded and started to get out of the room. The doctor turned to look at Elijah, Chloe, and Ralph. "Alright, I'm going to kick one of you out. I need to examine her and check the bullet wounds. So I either need her dad or you," she pointed at Chloe, "to stay in here as a precaution." 

Chloe reached over and squeezed Elijah's shoulder. "I know you want to stay with her, and I know Diana won't want Ralph out of her sight. I'll just step outside with Gavin and Nines, alright?" Elijah nodded, glad she took this decision off his shoulders. He stayed while the doctor checked over Diana, frowning and catching their eye when Diana struggled to speak clearly. 

Once the exam finished Elijah stepped over to the doctor, keeping an eye on Diana and Ralph. "What is she going to need to get back to normal?"

"Mr. Kamski, your daughter has gone through a lot. Speech therapy will help her get her voice back, and physical therapy could help some of the muscle weakness. But your daughter will never get back to her full health again. Right now she's lucky to still have two working eyes." The doctor stepped closer, lowering their voice as they continued to speak. "I can recommend a therapist if you two need one to help with this transition."

Elijah glared down at the doctor, "She  _ will _ recover, and if you do anything to hinder her recovery I will find another doctor." 

"We'll get her set up with a speech therapist right away."

"When can I take her home?"

"Once she can walk around unassisted we will release her. She'll still need regular blood tests to make sure the nanobots are helping her kidneys."


	19. 5 years after the battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To start with- I am so so so sorry for the delay. My computer died and I've been writing on a tablet and my phone and honestly the stylus kills my wrist so it's very slow writing.

 

“The date is November 11th, 2043. It’s been 5 years since we gained our freedom. So much has changed in the past 5 years.” Markus turned and motioned towards the others sitting behind him on the stage. North gave a smile and reached over to squeeze Diana’s hand. Markus motioned for the two of them to join him at the front of the stage. “Five years ago standing here side by side was only a hope, only a dream. We could only hope for peace and yet here we are.” Diana reached up to give Markus a quick hug as she took his spot at the podium.

 

She pushed her hair behind her ear, the scars from years previous still on her face. She wouldn’t hide them, refused to shun the events that happened to her. “If you asked me where we would be right now. I would have told you it didn’t matter- as long as I had my best friend with me.” She took a moment to look out at the crowd, Ralph standing next to Chloe, both of them smiling at her. Alice and her family were standing behind them, the trio smiling and waving. It still amazed Diana how much she had grown. “Five years ago all I cared about was surviving, all any of us cared about was surviving to the next day. Freedom was a hope, a dream we wondered if it was even within reach. Markus proved it was. It’s really a miracle to see what we’ve all become in the last 5 years. To see just how far humanity has come.” 

 

She turned back towards Markus reached for his hand. “Five years and a few days ago I stood on a stage, telling fellow students how we needed to help, how we needed to reach out to you. Markus, my humanity is wrapped up in yours, and I feel  _ human _ .” 

 

They both smiled at each other for a moment, before Markus lifted their clasped hands in the air. “We are alive, and we are free!” Diana laughed and pulled away as North, Josh and Simon all came up and hugged Markus. 

 

She chuckled and shook her head, turning towards the audience and reporters. “Now that- that’s a photo op, the Jericho Four all together. Everyone celebrating 5 years of freedom.” She turned to look right at where her dad was standing, surrounded by their friends in the DPD. “It was a freedom paid for with blood and tears, a bittersweet victory.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, pausing as her fingers touched some of the worst scarring, then tracing over it lightly. She gave a short laugh, it caught in her throat as she tried not to cry. “You know, I’m suddenly reminded of an old show. From before I was born, they had a musical episode.” She cleared her throat and sang a few lines. "The battle’s done and we’ve kind of won, so we sound our victory cheer. Where do we go from here?” 

 

Someone started to clap, Diana held up a hand and looked towards the side, scanning around the audience. “We’ve fought the battles, we’ve shed our blood, but progress never ends. Androids have the right to own property, to marry, to adopt even. But until they have every equal right that you and I have- we haven’t won. The fight isn’t finished until every single one of us are equal in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of the populace.” 

 

She turned away from the podium and took her seat next to North again, letting Markus continue his speech. He was better than she was at this, better at smoothing over the horrors they all suffered. Diana had the bad habit of lingering over them, she kept her scars, only applying her nano mask when she was at home with her dad. He still wasn't comfortable with her scars. Never once blamed Ralph, never suggested plastic surgery after the one time she blew up at him. 

 

She looked over at the crowd once more, watching the way Markus drew them in with his words, she could never deny it. That man had charisma. She turned to give North a small smile. They had grown closer in their friendship over the past 5 years, Ralph had also become friends with Josh and Simon. They helped calm his anxieties and all seemed to enjoy their time together. 

 

The speech ended and the four of them stood up by Markus for another photo before going off the stage. Diana quickly found herself wrapped up in Ralph's arms. "You spoil me love." She gave Ralph a quick peck on the lips, then turned to give Alice a tight hug. "I'm so glad you made it." Alice gave her a quick grin before pulling Kara and Luther to Diana. 

 

Diana glanced back to see Ralph talking with Markus and her dad. Nines and Gavin were standing nearby and keeping an eye out. Alice's voice brought Diana's attention back to the trio. "I can't believe it's been 5 years." The teen looked around the crowd. Diana wished she could ease the fear that lingered on Alice's face. They knew who she was looking for, who she didn't want to see in the crowd. Diana reached over and held Alice's hand. "Sometimes I wonder if the nightmares ever go away."She could never forget, Alice was still a child. One with mental scars instead of physical. No-one could forget Diana's trauma, but too many forgot the hidden traumas.

 

"Does Kara know you still have them?" Alice nodded. She pushed a stray hair back as she looked over at Luther, he gave her a nod and a smile.

 

Alice looked around once more before speaking to Diana, "I did have something I wanted to ask you. When we're alone. Mom and Dad thought you might be more helpful, since we're both human?"

 

"Yeah sure. You're spending the night, right? We can talk tonight." Alice gave her a small grin before darting back over to her parents. 

 

The next few hours seemed to pass in a blur to Diana, people kept coming up and talking to them. Shaking hands and exchanging false smiles, though she felt as if Markus, Josh, and Connor weren't faking theirs. She could tell Simon was from how he tried to keep near Markus, hoping to draw some confidence from the charismatic leader. North stuck by Hank, exchanging  _ looks _ after certain reporters would leave. She knew they would have snarky comments to share once they were alone. 

 

She almost missed the microphone shoved in her face, "How do you feel about the recent law passed? The one allowing human and Android marriage?"

 

Diana didn't miss the way the reporter glanced over at Ralph. She caught the hopeful glance North gave, the woman really was a romantic deep down. "Of course I'm happy it passed. The right to marry who you love is a vital part of one's freedom and happiness. This is a monumental step in lowering prejudice towards androids- those in mixed relationships. I can only hope next will be a loosening of adoption laws for androids." 

 

The reporter gave a smile, then asked another question. "Any ideas who will be the first couple to tie the knot now that it's legal?" Diana frowned at the question. It seemed pointless and undeniably personal.

 

"No. It would be great for Chloe to officially become my mother, but I don't see my dad as the marrying type." She looked over to both the Chloe's, the original standing by her dad's side as always. The other, brown hair now a deep red was standing near Officer Chen. Diana did wonder if they were ever going to become official. 

 

"Nothing in the works between you and Ralph?" Was that annoying man still there? Diana turned and gave a fake smile before answering. 

 

"I believe my personal life is just that. Personal." She turned and walked away from the reporter, hoping the obvious dismissal would stop him. "North, how do you keep such a straight face with all this?" 

 

"I'm saving it all for once we're alone." She didn't even turn towards Diana as she smiled and waved for another picture. Diana stood behind North, arms resting over the smaller woman's shoulders. "I've already been called sweety five times. And asked about my relationship with Markus several times." 

 

"Of course." Eventually, but not soon enough for Diana they were able to leave. She gave a sigh of relief as she sank into the seat before tossing her head back and closing her eyes. A soft giggle let her know the rest of the group was joining. She didn't know who climbed into the seat next to her but it didn't matter. 

 

"Oh  _ Markus _ , who do you think will be the first Human/Android couple to get married?" North asked in a mocking, breathless voice. The whole limo filled with laughter, it grew as Diana flipped the woman off.

 

"Diana wasn't asked that was she?" Ralph asked, concern leaking through his laughter.

 

She just nodded, finally opening her eyes and looking around the group. "I should have just given the most out there response possible." She turned to see Josh whispering in Simon's ear before he started to giggle. "Care to share with the class Josh?"

 

The wide eye look they both gave was worth it. "Out there couples huh? Chloe and Hank."

 

It started everyone in a round of laughing and shouting over each other.

"Which Chloe?"

"She has standards!"

"Standards being Tina."

"Excuse me?"

"No no no, Connor and Diana!"

"Fuck no."

"That's worse that my suggestion of Connor and Elijah."

"Diana has standards. Ralph would not approve."

 

"Gavin and Nines?" Kara's questioning suggestion brought the limo to silence for a moment before Luther started to chuckle. 

 

Elijah turned towards the blonde Chloe, "I thought she knew."

 

Kara blinked at them in surprise, "I thought you were just joking Alice." 

 

The teenager rolled her eyes. "I told you I wasn't. Diana's uncle Gavin is dating his work partner." Alice shook her head at her mom's expression before turning towards Diana again. "So where are we getting dropped off at?"

 

"We can head to my place, I'm sure your parents would want some time to hang out with everyone else." 

 

Alice, Ralph, and Diana sat together in Diana's living room. Alice was already in her pajamas and holding onto her stuffed fox. "That reporter wanted to know if you two were going to get married, didn't he?"

 

Ralph shrugged as he turned to Diana. "Ralph doesn't understand why."

 

"Wouldn't change anything. Ralph and I aren't- that way." Diana frowned as she muted the tv, not wanting to see the speeches from earlier. She glanced at Alice, setting confusion of the girls face. "Look, your 14. You notice people right? Girls or guys, you look at them and think they might be attractive?" 

 

Alice nodded, clutching her fox tighter and replying. "I actually wanted to ask you, is it normal to like both guys and girls?" 

 

Diana shrugged. "Of course it is. Just like it's normal to not like either, or to feel romantic attraction but not- like  _ that _ . Ya know?" She gave a frown, wondering if she was even describing it correctly. "See, I love Ralph. He's my best friend, we kiss, we cuddle, but the  _ idea _ of- of  _ sex _ is just disgusting to me."

 

"Ralph doesn't mind either way. Ralph knows Diana loves him. He knows Diana's family is Ralph's family. Ralph has been told that what we are is Asexual, and what Alice is would be Bisexual?" He turned to Diana, silently asking her confirmation. 

 

"Alice is whatever label she feels comfortable with." 

 

The three of them sat together on Diana's couch, changing the news to a movie Alice had suggested and watching that until they all fell asleep together. They may have lived through war, but slowly they would all heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ends Diana and Ralph's second story. A third (focusing on Alice and Diana's long distance friendship in the 5 years) will be started when I have a computer again.   
> I will continue my other stories but after that just stick to one shots.


End file.
